Self-righteous AI

[NordicExpanse]

I guess it's the old "you find out who your friends are."
I denounced Attila and had a whole line of civs come pat me on the back and join me, saying how nice it was to see someone step up and denounce him, yada yadda yadda, then I went to war with him, only Montezuma pledged to help ("pledged", didn't actually do anything except knock out a wandering warrior) and when I rid the world of Attila, all of a sudden, they all piled on me, denouncing me and all went from "friendly" to "guarded". Monty still likes me though
I guess it's not that much different from the real world...

 

[livsbrand]

Wait a minute... Did you actually get an AI to join you in war without paying for it? That has literally never happened to me. I stopped trying long ago.

 

[b7fanatix]

For the AI, Cause is secondary to Effect.

Denounce Father Christmas? Declare War on Bambi?

Watch them line up and congratulate you. Whether victim was deserving of your aggression matters not at all.

In this game, wars are just banter, nobody cares how many of them you declare so long as you don't violate rule number one.

However, if the effect of this war is that you actually capture an enemy city, it all gets much more serious. Wipe out the other Civ entirely, now everyone will hate you forever.

*Rule number one. Thou shalt not EVER declare war or denounce someone i have an active declaration of friendship with, no matter what they do, or have every other Civ hate you for the rest of the game.

Be especially wary of defensive pacts. If anyone declares war on the other party in this DP, you automatically declare war on them, even if that Civ is one you have a DoF with.

It cuts the other way too. Say you have a defensive pact with another Civ you're friendly with, and someone declares war on you. If your fellow in the DP had a declaration of friendship with the one attacking you, they will be seen as a backstabber and the whole world will declare war on them.

 

[Burpman]

I rid the world of Attila

Never ever completely wipe out an AI. Leave them with a city or two.

 

[Goldstar]

Never ever completely wipe out an AI. Leave them with a city or two.

This. Basically, when you completely eliminate a player from the game, the AI takes that to mean you are willing to genocide a people. Always try to leave them with a dinky little city laying around.

 

[Falconiano]

Wait a minute... Did you actually get an AI to join you in war without paying for it? That has literally never happened to me. I stopped trying long ago.

AI will very likely join up a war from dialogue if they already think about attacking that civ (i.e. neighbors).

 

[b7fanatix]

How many of an enemie's cities to take is a problem i struggle with.

Militarily, it's much easier to keep going once you defeat their army, and use the momentum to take city after city. I lost my most recent game because i only took one city each time i attacked, giving the enemy time to recover. And then because of defensive pacts, it turned into me and China vs the world, and the situation eventually became unmanageable, even with savegame whoring.

 

[Ryoga]

Leaving a civ with just a small city has several advantages. You can then spend the subsequent turns denouncing them and everyone will like you because the AI likes to pick on the weak.

This will become institutionalized bullying and the world will be happy beacause everyone will have someone to relieve their stress on. Everyone... except the bullied of course.

 

[NordicExpanse]

Wait a minute... Did you actually get an AI to join you in war without paying for it? That has literally never happened to me. I stopped trying long ago.

He just asked for ten turns to prepare. Ten turns later, he declared war. iwas shocked myself. Granted, I'm playing an easier level (whichever comes after Chieftain or the one after that)

 

[NordicExpanse]

For the AI, Cause is secondary to Effect.

However, if the effect of this war is that you actually capture an enemy city, it all gets much more serious. Wipe out the other Civ entirely, now everyone will hate you forever.

*Rule number one. Thou shalt not EVER declare war or denounce someone i have an active declaration of friendship with, no matter what they do, or have every other Civ hate you for the rest of the game.

I suppose if they tried to make it more realistic (i.e. the world no longer hates Italy because of the Roman Empire or even Germany so much because of what the Nazis did), it makes the game too easy. I could certainly go on a full-on world conquest if the fallout only lasted a few turns.