using GAs to start wars

Has anyone had success using the "culture bomb" ability to get other MPs to declare on you? It occurred to me this could be a good way to pursue a warmongering strategy without the diplomacy hit.

 

The only diplo hit you avoid would be the one for declaring war. As soon as you start gobbling up cities the other AIs are going to hate you just the same. I suppose you could goad the AI in question through other means (demands, buying out their CS allies) and just pop the artist for a golden age. The only time I've culture-bombed an AIs land, Alexander politely warned that if I was trying to provoke a war, I'm doing a good job.

 

Usually when I war monger this happens:
1. Take one civ and let some other civ take their last city
2. Declare war on the person that took the last city. (most hated civ)
3. Take his cities... Usually if you have a large army some people will call on you for being a war monger but you will still usually have 1-2 allies that don't care.
Others won't DoW on you since you have a large army and you are free to do whatever.

 

It is a complete waste of a GA to bomb a Civ you are going to attack anyway (and thus get their culture when you conquer their city that is culturing that location). A culture bomb works best against a 'friendly' Civ that has a strategic or luxury resource you really need (aluminum and uranium come to mind) but that you don't want to go to war with. You will take a diplo-hit but you'll get a potentially game-changing resource in the process, which makes it worth it.

Another evil culture bomb tactic is to bomb an enemy's Citadel that you are at war with. You then get the citadel under your control which then aids your attack and also eliminates their bonus, and worst of all for them, the general they used to make the citadel basically becomes a free one for you since you 'stole' it's improvement.

 

In the past, I've had the problem with civs no longer offer anything in peace deals once you go to war with any civ for a second time. My thinking was by using a culture bomb to get the other civ to declare on me instead, I could avoid this penalty. I was under the impression that doing a culture bomb was pretty much a guaranteed DoW, but it sounds like this isn't true, at least not all the time.

@swordspider - Is the Citadel something that happens more in multiplayer? I've yet to see the AI build a citadel.

 

To answer your question, no a culture-bomb is not a definite war in fact I have done it many times to 'allies' and not started a war. They of course are less than happy about it.

As far as the citadel, yes you see it regularly in multiplayer, especially on fractal maps with clear choke-points. I once turned the tides of a 2-sided war getting the Louvre and bombing the citadels that were on my flanks. Besides being a completely unexpected tactic, it also really pisses off human players.

 

Yeah citadels can be a real pain in multi(from a choke point like swordspider said). I even saw somebody with me on a little continent beelining warrior code and put a citadel right on the border of his civ and we were not at war yet.

In fact, i warmongered somebody else through water first! When i got rifles, i sneaked his capital(astronomy discovered) and his citadel has been completely useless against me.

If the only path is X, well yes a citadel put in X worth it if you are below average in soldiers. Otherwise, keep it and defend with units.

 

Interesting stuff about Great Artists. I've only had one great artist and I used him to get a supply of oil that was just outside of a city's radius. Sounds like there are many good uses for them. I'd always thought they were kinda the inferior Great Person to get. This was a good read.

 

In my current game (deity) the ai(napoleon) is heavy using culture bombs, it seams the like to isolate my cities. I am lucky to have a ga new the border so i bomb again one turn later, and napoleon said this may causes war. Several turns later a new wave ga appears near my border, and the peace treaty still exist. So i wait...

 

For some reason they will still hate you, regardless of who started the war. If you defend yourself you will be denounced. Funny, huh? Imagine the UK denouncing the US because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.