Wary of Greeks Bearing Gifts

[iggymnrr]

Has anyone had a CS change sides in a war without warning? I tried out a game as the Incas and drew Greece as the only AI on the continent. After a couple of wars we got into a bidding war with some CSs. Before starting the 3rd war myself (revenge) I was worried that a CS would swap sides mid-turn due to the Greek UA so I paid down some more cash just in case. (Greece and I didn't have rifles but the CSs did.)

On a side note I got a candidate for the "screenshot of the day" from the game.

Spoiler :

I think the frigate got bounced to Argos when hostilities commenced. I was wondering where one I was monitoring disappeared to.

Edit: Been awhile since I've played V, but terrace farms aren't impacted by Civil Service or Fertilizer. Are normal farms?

 

[Nares]

On a side note I got a candidate for the "screenshot of the day" from the game.

So is that the Argo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo

EDIT: Wtf tile yields.

 

[EndoConvert]

Has anyone had a CS change sides in a war without warning?

No, that's impossible. Once a war actually starts, allied CSes are committed and cannot be bought.

However, there's nothing to stop purchasing of CSes on the eve of a war. A good strat is to save up money and then buy all your enemy's CSes right before you declare war, which will stop your enemy from being able to buy them back.

On a side note I got a candidate for the "screenshot of the day" from the game.

Spoiler :

I think the frigate got bounced to Argos when hostilities commenced. I was wondering where one I was monitoring disappeared to.

This is a known bug. See "[BUG] Land boat: Boat is stuck when in city when it's razed AND ship in inland city".

 

[iggymnrr]

No, that's impossible. Once a war actually starts, allied CSes are committed and cannot be bought.

I know that. But I'm asking about a switch due to my influence degrading faster than Greece's. We both have influence invested before the war.

 

[SilverKnight]

Once you go to war with another civ that has a city-state ally, your influence with said city-state instantly hits -60 until either the war with the civ is over or they are no longer allies. That means that even if their alliance did slip during the war, you could conceivably declare peace with that city-state and start paying frigate-loads of gold to quickly get them on your side. I guess this works the other way for your own weak alliances in a war.

The thing to watch out for is the other civ's social policies. If they have even a couple in the city-state tier (and Greece would be likely to), they can get the "minimum 20 influence with city-states" one, which would make buying up your former allies during a war all the cheaper.

Silverknight

 

[iggymnrr]

^
So I was paranoid. Greece did have policies in patronage so that means his influence probably dropped to 20 when war started. Much ado about nothing. I would get the warning at 60 influence then.

 

[TheNoodle]

In this era of virtual personalities of the year and net-made millions, I also beware of geeks bearing grifts. Noods

 

[Monthar]

Once you go to war with another civ that has a city-state ally, your influence with said city-state instantly hits -60 until either the war with the civ is over or they are no longer allies. That means that even if their alliance did slip during the war, you could conceivably declare peace with that city-state and start paying frigate-loads of gold to quickly get them on your side. I guess this works the other way for your own weak alliances in a war.

The thing to watch out for is the other civ's social policies. If they have even a couple in the city-state tier (and Greece would be likely to), they can get the "minimum 20 influence with city-states" one, which would make buying up your former allies during a war all the cheaper.

Silverknight

^
So I was paranoid. Greece did have policies in patronage so that means his influence probably dropped to 20 when war started. Much ado about nothing. I would get the warning at 60 influence then.

What it means is, Greece went to -60 with your CS allies as soon as war was declared. If Greece has the minimum 20 with a CS policy and your alliance ends during the war and Greece makes peace with them as soon as your alliance ends, then the turn after Greece makes peace with the CS it will be at the +20 setting, so they could then buy the alliance.

It works this same way for any Civ if they have that one policy. Greece's UA just means that if Greece does not have the minimum 20 policy, it'd take half the turns other Civs take to get from -60 to 0.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I thought that minimum 20 influence policy was weak, but then on polycast they pointed out a war puts it down to -60 so that's an 80 point difference.
Although if I'm using patronage then I'm usually above 0 influence with many city states so I'm gaining nothing with them. This is better for stealing away allies after a war.

 

[Airey]

A good strat is to save up money and then buy all your enemy's CSes right before you declare war, which will stop your enemy from being able to buy them back.

Buy the AI to war the CSs before declaring war is cheaper and more neg relations than trying to calculate all that. Get +ally status after you kill a few AI units.