Who is the best nation to be allied with?

[Mapache]

I choose my AI opponents and I usually skip the Americans. Out of my choices The English are the best allies and most reliable trade partners. Even after me comitting some cruelties against other civs they remain polite. The French were always reliable. too.

 

[Magnus]

A good thing to do, is pay the allying civ PER TURN, instead of lump sum or with tech, that way when they do make early peace, you at least saved some dough, and conversely, it also may make them fight on longer than 20 turns cuz the money is still pouring in.

 

[siredgar]

From my experience, the French are the best allies. They are loyal and trustworthy. The Indians are wimpy and back out of wars too easily. The Germans can never be trusted. The Russians are hard to keep as friends, too. So are the Japanese. The British are pretty good allies. I don't know too much about an alliance with the Chinese, since they never seem to need me. But the one time they were weak and signed an alliance with me, they were alright. I don't really play the other civs that much.

Anyhow, all of this doesn't seem to be correlated that much with aggression levels. It may just be programmed in for each civ's characteristics. I read somewhere that Elizabeth was designed to be a total ***** at the latter stages of the game. I think that was from Soren Johnson.

Anyone have an idea on any of this?

 

[Dragon67]

About how much they demand to be an ally, depends of many things, and some of them are: How much influence you, him and your enemy has in the current game. If it is many trades between your enemy and your upcoming ally. Who started the war. And how fast you can create an alliance after the war first has begun(It's much easier to create an alliance in the first turn, it will be harder if you wait).
I don’t think the aggressive level count so much, since Shaka gladly will join you, even fore free sometimes. He simply need wars, and can't live without it.

 

[God]

I've noticed that if you do ally with aggressive nations, they tend to send the biggest military to aid you.

 

[sunround]

Really usefull allianse depends from situation.
But no matter, what allianse I have, very often I hate every civ there.

Because they are really scum!! Independent for any civ I am playing.

I has allianse with Rome (they asked this, not me!!).
After some turns we are in the war with Egypt, next turn with American (they are in MMP with Egypt).

AFTER TWO turns Rome sign PEACE with Egypt. I am alone now against two civs. Becase Rome has such unbelievable thing,
I sing peace with America. I don't want war with them, it is just MMP with Egypt.

FROM NOW any civ don't want TO SIGN ANY pact or allianse with me. They don't trust me. Everybody telling me, that I am not good man, because I betrayed to Rome.

HUH?? But before Rome betrayed me.
Also advisor told me later, that Rome is lier and cheater, but it doesn't matter.

ALL CIVS are polite toward Rome, but not me!

Is it normal for civ3?

THERE IS QUESTION.
May Rome in another game be nice? Or always this behaviour ti lie doesn't change?

Another game was nice all the time I was allied with Germany.
War between us started after other civs were destroyed.
That I understand. It is really good, usefull allianse.

All the best!

 

[Dragon67]

I agree. If you look at the advisor screen, you will soon find out that everyone betrays everyone, no matter what civ's it is. If they do not betray you, they will do it with others. Some of the civ's is nicer then other's, but nobody of then can be 100% trusted. The reason is that you enemy has something valuable to blackmail them with(tech,lux,resources). That is also one of the reasons, why it is so important to pillage/bomb his lux/resources earlier in the war. If he controls lots of it, he may also have a great influence in the game, and it will make it easy fore him to create another alliance. Against an enemy like that, I also try to engage as many opponents as I can against him, also those with mm pacts(so you can get a free partner). He will maybe be able to pay off one or two of them, but not all of them.
If someone ask you to join him, try to demand stuff from him. I may refuse it, if I am not sure what kind of war this is, and what chances it is to make an easy victory.
Do never ever break an alliance or an mp pact, you reputations will suffer so much, that you may already have lost the game. The same may also happen if a trade ends because of a war, but not so badly.
I believe it was one of those reasons why your reputation dropped so badly.
To end a war you have to wait until the alliance has ended(20 turns), and then chancel the deal. Also if you have an mp pact with someone, and they have been involved, wait to the deal has ended, chancel it, and THEN make peace.

 

[siredgar]

Don't ever trust Gandhi to help you fight a war! He almost always backs out before the 20 turns are over.

 

[Dragon67]

Thats right....So my conclutions is. The best civ to ally with, is the civ that has a lots of influence and recourses. The reason is that he has everything he needs, and can even get more civ's to join us because if his influence. Ex: This happen in my last game: I was in war with Egypt, the largest nation of the map. With help from the Japanese, they was close up to wipe out 2 of my allies.
So I decided to contact Persia, since they was the tech race leader, not the largest military nation, but he had the control of 15-20 luxuries and a huge amount of gold recourses, and because of that he was the nation with most influence. That agreement was very importent fore me, and changed the whole situation. Two turns after the agreement, he got 3-5 more civ's into our alliance against them. The deal was expensive, but it was really worth it. Even the Japanese turned over to our side(betraded the Egyptians), and it became a easy victory.
Note. It was the first game where the Zulu actually was really nice to me. He stayed by my side in hundreds of years, and in this case, he did not demand anything of me(he must have been sich ) . I belive it was beacause it was the fists game me and him really had inportent trades in both interest. I gave him lux, and he gave me coal and iron. So in the last games I have study the Zulu, to find out why he is so agressive. One of them is that he is allways backward in science/improvements, because his highest priority is the military. And thats why he somethimes treath his neighbours, with demand stuff from them fore free, because thats is his only way fore him to get techs. But if you actually manage to trade with him, then he suddendly can be nice(sometimes), and that impressed me. The bad with the zulu is that they are so slow to build trade routs, so in that way they are always a danger in the first part of the game.
Because of my tactic in this game, Persia will be hard to beat later in the game, but with some nukes/bombers, I belive it gonna be easy, since his land area is not that great

But anyway, it has been a interesting discussion, and I have learned alot, thanks

 

[sunround]

really nice to know more about Zulu.
Thank you.

Sometimes many civs demands stuf for free, for example China,
Iroqeses. But when I help to them by the trade of luxuries,
they may be nice in behaviour.

 

[siredgar]

Yeah, I agree, Shaka can't live without war. He'll always join a fight for free. In my current game, I've handicapped him so he can't build any settlers. So, he only has one city (he had two in the early stages of the game, as always because of Zulu's greater chances of getting settlers from goody huts). And yet, he will always join in a fight against the powerful Chinese and Indians with me. Funny guy.