Should I DOW my only neighbor? (Warlords)

[gsfgf]

Im isolated with one neighbor, Mehmed. He won't tech trade. Should I keep the peace and beeline Astronomy or DOW him. If I DOW, should I take a couple cities and sue for peace or finish him? It's 5AD and at the rate I'm teching, an Astronomy beeline would take 52 turns (Epic). Obviously, I can speed that up by settling new cities, growing, etc.

 

[Dan Quale]

DOW... if hes not trading with you his land will be much better under your protection. Try to finish him completely if at all possible, dont settle for a whiny vassal.

 

[Contox]

Yeah, just destroy him. Since he doesnt know anybody, theres no chance of powerful civs getting mad for attacking their friend. I would just build up a ridiculus army and invade.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Ideally you should have started planning Mehmed's demise as soon as you discovered you were alone with him.

AI never trades techs (except alphabet and monarchy) if they don't know any other AIs, unless you get them to friendly (which is pretty easy if you run their favourite civic however).

 

[Ai Shizuka]

If you have enough room for yourself you can push him to friendly and trade with no limits. He likes vassalage, wich isn't so hot. But unlimited tech trading can easily compensate the lack of bureaucracy.

 

[Yamps]

Well, there's the same religion too to get him to Friendly. You could also bulb towards Optics/Astronomy to get it sooner...

AI never trades techs (except alphabet and monarchy) if they don't know any other AIs, unless you get them to friendly

I'm pretty sure that Alphabet and Monarchy trading is a distinct BtS feature, he's playing Warlords. They certainly won't trade anything on Vanilla if not Friendly.

 

[popejubal]

I'm pretty sure that Alphabet and Monarchy trading is a distinct BtS feature, he's playing Warlords. They certainly won't trade anything on Vanilla if not Friendly.

...of course, he'll be entirely willing to trade a tech or two once enough catapults are sitting on his last couple cities' doorsteps.

 

[Skallagrimson]

Plan for a defensive war first to drain him of excess units, then DOW him, then annihilate those units, and while that's going on, build your offensive stack. If it gets hairy, switch back to more defensive units (maximum flexibility this way).