Spoiling for a War

Smellincoffee

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While playing a test game to see how not allowing cities in desert/tundra, I came across something interesting. I was playing the Greeks, sharing a continent with the Celts and the Ottomans, both of who enjoyed declaring war on me and each other on a regular basis. As a result, I annexed most of the Celts and the Celts annexed most of the Ottoman empire. On the other continent, I owned a bit of land, resulting from a war I waged to procure the three luxuries I was missing. In order to make China and Japan allow me to see them, I wound up capturing their entire seaboard. As I was finishing the last industrial tech, I noticed a large group of Vikings moving in the general direction of my seaboard properties.

sod.jpg


They were approaching my only town without tanks and mech infantry defending it. (it had been captured by swordsmen back in the medieval era, and now was defended by an elite* hoplite. They had attacked this town with beserks before, and my elite hoplite BARELY won- he was down to one hp. The town itself had silks and coal.) I got Fission, and thought I could avoid this massive stack with the vote. Unfortnuately, my prebuild wasn't quite ready and I would have had to wait for seven turns. Luckily, I had a scintific great leader (great leader game: three SGLs, two MGLs) and rushed it. The next turn, the votes came in. Three for me, two for Mao, two abstains. As a result, no win. So now I'd have to figure out how to deal with those guys. I thought about nuking the stack, but I couldn't without going to war with China, who bordered my city and whose territory the Vikings were passing.

I built tanks and mech infantry as fast as I could, and airlifted them as fast as I could. I used my bored workers (who were by now just being used to clean up pollution) to build lots of airfields in unused tiles. While I was watching the SOD move toward my poor little city, Japan decided to attack one of my mech infantry cities with a cav. This, of course, led the Chinese to declare war on Japan, since I got an MPP with China once I figured out the stack's destination. Then I got a great idea; I'll get the Vikings to MPP with me. And so I did. And they declared war on Japan. And their stack...continued moving toward Chengdu. On the turn before they could attack, I discovered a novel solution. I'd give the town to the Celts, and then take it back. The Celts were furious at me, anyway, and due to my denying them iron and horses after their third war with me (I got a ROP and then planted my troops on their resources, to make sure they wouldn't bother me anymore), they were weak, so I could easily take it back.

Clipboard02.jpg

The small stack. The other two are enormous.As you can see, I've retaken most of the Ottoman empire from the Celts and given it back to the Ottomans- except for one city with oil, which I figured I'd need later. I was right.
And so I did. And....the stack simply moved to attack my main seaboard cities. As the attack began, I walked out of the room, because it was going to take entirely too long. I came back to find a leader waiting for me, named the unit, left again. At the end of the battle, the Vikings lost all of their archers, beserks, and MDI. I had one 1/5 tank and a couple of cavarly left in my city, out of a stack of six mech infantries. (I never got around to railroading my useless Chinese territory, and for some reason I didn't get any slaves in my Chinese and Japanese wars)

The thing that gets me is how the Vikings were just determined to have a war with me. The city they attacked had furs, but the Vikings had THEIR OWN FURS, so I don't see the point, and I could see all resources at that time. Has anyone ever seen the AI persue war so stubbornly?


On a side note, I invaded the Vikings, took three of their five continental cities, and am now ignoring them. I erased the Celts from existance. The UN vote has come up three times now, and no one is really voting now except for me and Mao. :lol: I'm going to win this one by space.
 
Well....do you have a high AI aggression level on? Whenever I play on a level higher than "normal" the AIs get really, really ornery. Also, since you're a Mediterranean civ and he's a European civ, that will only compound his grouchiness towards you. And AIs will attack your weakly defended cities on anything above Cheiftan if they think there's any chance they could take you.

Plus, if I remember my editor exploration correctly, Ragnar is one of the most aggressive leaders in the game anyway. So if you don't have anything he wants, perhaps he just doesn't like you.
 
If a computer decides to attack a city sometimes they wont stop even when they should. its weird.
 
If you declared war on them while they were marching through the Chinese land, and immediately signed the Chinese into an alliance (a.k.a. death warrant :p ), then those Viking units would attack those Chinese cities instead of yours.

Because the AI "thinks" only 1 unit at a time, you need to give them another target, such that each of those units will think it is easier to reach the new target than your cities. This is why your move of getting them to declare on Japan didn't change the SoD's path at all.
 
Because the AI "thinks" only 1 unit at a time, you need to give them another target, such that each of those units will think it is easier to reach the new target than your cities. This is why your move of getting them to declare on Japan didn't change the SoD's path at all.

That must explain it. At the time they were nearing my city, a small horde of Asnar Warriors was removing Japan from the continent. We were just closer.


Well....do you have a high AI aggression level on? Whenever I play on a level higher than "normal" the AIs get really, really ornery. Also, since you're a Mediterranean civ and he's a European civ, that will only compound his grouchiness towards you. And AIs will attack your weakly defended cities on anything above Cheiftan if they think there's any chance they could take you.


Actually, things were quite pleasant between us. I was gifting all of my excess luxuries to all of the civs except for the Ottomans and the Celts. The Vikings lost my furs and wine.
 
I've had upteen civs behave like this, China, Persia, Germany, Mongols and then any civ with it's back to the wall. They've got the resource or luxury already and they will openly break a deal, even if it's a peace deal that follows them getting a thrashing and has only lasted 2 or 3 turns. I see it as a kind of suicide mode inspired from a weak position. They lose all regard for their rep making alliances against them even easier. They go to war for whatever petty reason, get trashed and dog piled cos of their unscrupulous behaviour. It's slightly disturbing but usually works in your favour ie. you take their lands or some lands in the resulting melee.

I've always thought that when they behave with such unbridled aggression it has something to do with you being very powerful. They dislike you the more powerful you get.
 
Considering I was a full era ahead of the best AI civ and two above the Vikings, I' wouldn't be suprised.
 
The Zulu did that with me once, Me (India) , Zulu, and France left. Zulu plopped 40ish units on my island city, and promptly killed 6 cavalry there. Killed about 30 units before dying, and then 10 turns later, it culture fliped back. :p
 
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