[Vanilla] Why did the entire continent suddenly declare war on me?

[StargazingDog]

This is the vanilla game, current version, continents map, prince difficulty, no mods. I am playing as Greece.

I have been on my best behaviour. I have four other AI on my continent (India, Russia, Egypt, Sumeria), with plenty of room for everyone. The only transgression I have made is settling too close to Russia, which I promised to not repeat and upheld this promise (the game even notified me of this).

Suddenly, around turn 100, all four of them declared war on me within a turn or two of each other. There is absolutely no clear reason why. When I check the diplomacy details, they are all at least net +10 positive with me. The only negatives I see are -1 Russia for settling too close, and -2 Egypt and India for "unknown reason". Egypt just praised me a turn before declaring war, and Russia actually praised me a few turns after declaring war!

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

This absolutely ruined the game for me. I was actually having fun, then this happened. I genuinely wonder if there is some sort of bug.

edit: I tried uninstalling the game, deleting all the files, reinstalling, and only copying over a save file from the turn before anyone declared war. It still happens. I reloaded the game and tried declaring friendship with Sumeria. They accepted and now I am a few turns later and no one has declared war. I am going to continue for now, but if this happens again, I am going back to Civ 5.

 

[Askia Muhammad]

Do you have a very small military in comparison? This will often cause the AI to be opportunistic

 

[Infixo]

Funny thing is that most of people here dream about being attacked. Generally AI is considered too passive and we look for ways to make it more aggressive. And you get DoWed and you say it ruined the game for you

 

[Askia Muhammad]

Funny thing is that most of people here dream about being attacked. Generally AI is considered too passive and we look for ways to make it more aggressive. And you get DoWed and you say it ruined the game for you

Yes, this is me. I feel the AI NEVER declares war and it makes the game very boring.

 

[Urlance Woolsbane]

Do you have a very small military in comparison? This will often cause the AI to be opportunistic

Seconding this. Also, how much unsettled land remains on your continent? In my experience, AI players tend to be markedly more aggressive when tightly packed-in with other empires.

 

[Planktonic]

Suddenly, around turn 100, all four of them declared war on me within a turn or two of each other. There is absolutely no clear reason why.

I agree this may be because your military score may have been so low as to prompt an opportunistic attack.

But no reason to give up on the game. I don't know the exact details of your map, but I've had multiple civs DOW me many times. It usually doesn't amount to much.

I'm guessing a couple of the civs are at some remove from you. It may be 20 turns before any of their units even reach you. You may well be able to strike a peace before that.

And even if the nearer civs do send units, these usually arrive piecemeal and haphazardly. There is very rarely a coordinated attack in numbers. If you position and fortify your units properly, and wage a purely defensive war, you can likely degrade their military significantly, even to the point where you can counterattack and take cities.

So cheer up- look at it as an opportunity. You might be able to take some cities with relatively minor cost in grievances.

 

[StargazingDog]

Don’t get me wrong. I would love for the AI to be a bit more aggressive, but this was completely unwarranted. I wouldn’t mind if they were angry with me, or had some sort of reason. However, these AI are literally ranging from +10 to +15 in the relationship screen with no negatives. It makes no sense. The entire continent declares war on me simultaneously despite us having announced friendship and such.

It wasn’t even that I couldn’t fend them off. I continued for about ten turns, had plenty of defenders, and didn’t even see an enemy unit approach my lands. I ended up loading an auto save from the turn prior to the war.

Thanks for the comments. I did play that session out, but quit when I hit industrial era in 900AD. This is vanilla with no mods, and I am researching Steam Power almost 1000 years ”early”, despite not even focusing on science.

 

[Yorke]

Which ruleset are you playing on? After you declare friendship (blue smile) you can't declare war (or be target of war) until it expires... The only exception I can think of is that an Emergency was triggered against you and overruled the friendship

And the AI really betrays you in daylight even when friendly if calculates that you're too week to then (even if they will not necessarily win the war).

 

[canadamufc]

The only exception I can think of is that an Emergency was triggered against you and overruled the friendship

This can only happen for betrayal emergencies, in all other emergencies declared friends are unable to join.

The entire continent declares war on me simultaneously despite us having announced friendship and such.

This defies the game mechanics, declared/announced friends cannot declare war on eachother under any circumstance unless it's a betrayal emergency.

 

[Ordnael]

For some time i actually try goading AI into war by not sending envoys, i only do that after they turn green on me. Got a surprise war from Korea last game, my transgression was settler hunting, but that had been "solved" on the previous age but still i wasn't on track with Seondeoks 's agenda. I found her attack pretty well coordinated, just not enough to take my jugular (they went for my capital), I didn't have many military units but i had the money to leverage them from CS and i took their capital...end of war!

 

[StargazingDog]

I loaded up the save file from the turn immediately before the wars were declared. I have the strongest military (155 vs under 100 for everyone else). All Civs had a "friendly meeting" and I have a delegation with each. I specifically went out of my way to only greet others with a scout and have not done anything aggressive. Note that this is the base game with absolutely no mods or DLC enabled (so there are no emergencies, etc).

Egypt has +13 like toward me for strong military, and actually complimented me on it the previous turn. She only has -1 for different governments. Note that she has the trait of wanting to ally with strong military.

Sumeria has +9 for declared friends, +6 for currently being a declared friend. Only a -1 for different government. Note that he also has the trait of disliking anyone who attacks friends.

Russia has +7 for being pleased with my science and culture, but -3 for settling near them and -6 scared of threatening civs. I can see why he might declare a war, but he was the last civ to declare war.

India has +5 for keeping the peace, but -3 for settling near them. However, he has +8 "scared of threatening civs". I'm not sure why this is a positive score, and a hint that there is a bug with the game. Why would he has positive 8 while Russia has negative?

One last thing, when Egypt and Sumeria declared war, the game says they are "formal wars", which require a denouncement first. I have never been denounced. I read some comments that, in the base game, "joint wars" are always considered formal wars despite not requiring a denouncement. Apparently, this was fixed in Rise and Fall. So, maybe the base game is just broken in this regard.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Sumeria has +9 for declared friends

Are you running Mods as declared friends can't declare war on each other.

 

[StargazingDog]

Are you running Mods as declared friends can't declare war on each other.

No mods.

I presume that entry just means that we had declared friendship at some point, because I can request friendship on the diplomacy screen. In fact, this was the only way I was able to avoid these wars after reloading my save game.

 

[whorble]

I had this issue at least twice as well, where multiple friends would attack me at the same time even though we were declared friends (or maybe even allies, but definitely one of the two). Both were vanilla games without mods. If you allow me a wild guess, something about later updates to diplomacy retroactively broke vanilla.

 

[reddishrecue]

I think you had no barbarians on. Barbarians will make you make military because they won't allow you to expand as fast. Not only that but barbarians can help you forge alliances against barbarians that can bring you more respect from your fellow civilizations. Or maybe you had a strong difficulty level.

 

[Coronel_Civ3]

It's not a bug in the game and I personally consider civilization 3 to be the best in the series followed by civilization 2. AI civilizations interact according to their interests based on the setting of the scenario and what's happening in the world. The difference in military power, trade competitions or your actions with other powers can alter their attitudes. In my game I am receiving threats from Russia which I ignore... Strengthen my support by agreeing to a trade pact with the Roman Empire. This shortly after Russia attacks the Romans shortly after France retaliates against me by trading with the Romans. You have to know how to interpret the actions of the AI, that would be very good to add more options for expression and dialogue in the negotiations. Greetings.

 

[DeckerdJames]

Don’t get me wrong. I would love for the AI to be a bit more aggressive, but this was completely unwarranted. I wouldn’t mind if they were angry with me, or had some sort of reason. However, these AI are literally ranging from +10 to +15 in the relationship screen with no negatives. It makes no sense. The entire continent declares war on me simultaneously despite us having announced friendship and such.

It wasn’t even that I couldn’t fend them off. I continued for about ten turns, had plenty of defenders, and didn’t even see an enemy unit approach my lands. I ended up loading an auto save from the turn prior to the war.

Thanks for the comments. I did play that session out, but quit when I hit industrial era in 900AD. This is vanilla with no mods, and I am researching Steam Power almost 1000 years ”early”, despite not even focusing on science.

What is the religious situation and what are the governments that everyone is running? I have no idea though.