Trouble With My Borders

[JackNasty]

Hello all. Been reading this board for a couple weeks now and I've gotten some great tips. Time for my first big question for ya all.

I have one major problem in almost every game that I play; my borders start wars. Is this avoidable? The game I played tonight I managed to get 5 religions founded (on Noble) and I had every single NPC (5 of them) converted to Buddism, which was my state religion. I was trading, I had open borders, everyone was very happy with me.

But then inevitably my borders started to push on a few English towns and even though I had +4 "brothers of the faith etc" and only a -1 or -2 "our close borders spark tensions" she declares war on me.

This happens to me all the time and it's really annoying. You go out of your way to be nice to the NPC's and to stay away from war (I'm playing as freakin' Ghandi!) and just because your borders expand automatically you have to join a bigass fight.

So anyways. I'd LOVE to hear some tips on how to either stop this from happening, to slow it down, or how to deal with it better. Even just how to end wars quickly.

Thanks a bunch dudes.

 

[Kylearan]

Hi,

I have one major problem in almost every game that I play; my borders start wars. Is this avoidable? [...]
But then inevitably my borders started to push on a few English towns and even though I had +4 "brothers of the faith etc" and only a -1 or -2 "our close borders spark tensions" she declares war on me.

If your other boni like 'same faith' etc. outweigh the 'close border' penalties, you're fine in most cases. In my last game, I went for a cultural victory on Monarch, which naturally put AI cities under severe cultural pressure, and yet I managed to stay at peace with them by having the same faith, by trading a lot, by carefully observing who likes and hates whom, and by gifting them the occasional tech/resource. You can read about the game on my site linked in my sig, if you like.

If in your example England declared war on you nonetheless, this might have had other reasons: Maybe you were weak militarily compared to her and she saw an opportunity? Or you had other penalties as well, like trading with her worst enemy?

-Kylearan

 

[Harv72b]

Maybe you were weak militarily compared to her and she saw an opportunity?

-Kylearan

This is an excellent point--it seems like the AI weighs your power a lot heavier in Civ4 than in previous versions of the game. If you have a strong military, they're less apt to want go to war with you...or that's been my experience, anyway. I've had multiple AI civs furious at me for thousands of years before without them ever declaring war (on noble).

 

[Desert-Fox]

Hmm... I usually try to make nice production... once napoleon declared 3-4 times per game a war on me, but always suffered 3-4 city losses. First he demanded tributes, I said him "F**k you" and soon he declared war. Then I just only produced only military units, upgraded old ones... and just hit him into ground. And he doesn't learn. So always the number of forces doesn't show the readiness of war.

 

[Tremo]

Just take note of the following;

- Is your neighbour a leader with the 'Aggressive' trait?
- Are you trading or have a treaty with anyone they dislike?
- Does your neighbour have a different state religion?
- Have you said no to them asking for a gift or civic change in the past?
- Did you start a previous war with the civilization in question?
- Do you have a weaker military? (This is a big thing since the AI really likes to attack weak spots. And quite honestly, you deserve it if you let your guard down ).

If you have the same religion and an equal or stronger military force, you should be fine. If you don't have the same religion, which is highly possible, make sure you keep your military at peak efficiency, keep good trade relations and watch out with who else you're trading with.

Take note that aggressive leaders sometimes start a war they can't possibly win in the first place. I've had a game where I outnumbered the enemy by 2:1 and outteched them. They decided to declare war and quickly pillage a few improvements (THEY DESTROYED MY TOWN IMPROVEMENTS!) and then suddenly, after i annihilated the invading units and was preparing to counter attack, they sued for peace. Quite clever if you ask me. The AI gets a ton of money from pillaging, and just before you want to strike back, they sue for peace.

Not that I accepted... I pillaged quite a few of their towns and took over a city before calling it even.

 

[Shillen]

War is part of the game. You can never reduce war chance to zero and you shouldn't be able to.

 

[JackNasty]

Well it must be because of my weaker military. Like I said they are usually very friendly with me and then they just suddenly declare war cause of my borders. Maybe they would be less prone to do this if I spent more time beefing up my military each game.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[walkerjks]

I always have this problem as I play a creative civ (Catherine) for cultural wins. Some things that I find that help:

1) Keep open borders with your neighbors
2) Trade every chance you get with your neighbors
3) Don't commit to a religion earlier than you really need to. When you do commit, choose a religion that is most friendly to your neighibors.
4) If a neighbor demands tribute, give it to them (I still refuse requests for war)
5) If I am flush in a resource and they don't have anything specific I want, I will gift them a resource.

And probably the most important one - 6) Keep a good military. You can be at a net +6 and be their religion and still be attacked if they perceive you as weak.

I had crazy relations with the Mongols in my last game. They kept insisting that I attack the Indians and/or break off my treaties, but since the Indians were another immediate neighbor, I consistently refused. Late in the game I had bonuses of +14 and negatives of -12, including -4 from close borders. The Mongols never did attack, even when my net shifted to -1 at one point.