Why do Civs keep attacking me?

[RomanNapoleon]

I like to play the game peacefully because I love researching new technology's and getting cities to join me without force, but whenever i play a game someone always attacks me. I've set the AI aggression to least aggressive but someone always attacks me for no reason.
I hate it how you can't make an alliance without going to war with someone. Any tips? Do i need to give money to my neighbors every turn for them not to attack?

 

[vmxa]

You can usually keep them from attacking by being much stronger than they. F3 and see what the advisor says about you vs the other civs. If he does not say we are strong, make it so. If he says you are avg or weak, expect an DOW soon.

Even being storng is not always a lock, but being much stornger tneds to do it. Culture flips are are a low level game feature. If you play at mid or high levels, you will not be seeing flips. This is because the AI can make cluture structures cheaper than you and will have lots of them.

Research require lots of beakers. Ways to get them are by having some large cities with all the beaker multiplers or better yet, lots of towns that do not. So being strong and taking towns or razing them is antoher way to get big and faster researching.

Giving money to them will not buy much, they will just get stronger and eventually they will want your land or resources or lux and try to take them.

As the land becomes spoken for, the AI will want yours, if it is strong enough to think it can attack you. It is liike being pot commited, you get down to too few big blinds and have to take your shot.

That is what will happen to the AI at some point, sometimes regardless of your strength.

 

[marceagleye]

If you are bigger and stronger than they are they are less likely to attack. If you have any type of trade where gold per turn is exchanged they are unlikely to attack. If you plan for conquest and build accordingly they will likely want to be friend. Let's say you are the Iroquois and Motezuma is your neighbor. Your sitting there building improvements and wonders while he's building offensive units. It won't be long until he's overpowering you. On the other hand, perhaps you notice he has some cash while you have an extra dye to trade. You ask him what he will offer for the dye. He says 140 gold plus 7 gold per turn. If you accept the deal he won't attack for the next 20 turns. The AI civs LOVE trade deals where gold per turn is exchanged. It doesn't matter who's giving the product and who's paying the gold. As long as the AI sees it as a fair trade they will see you as an economic ally rather than a military opponent.

 

[SKS]

Worst comes to worse, find a friendly neighbor and sign a MPP with him. That *should* stave off DOWs a tad bit.

 

[Turner]

It might not, either. But what it will do is cause the AIs you're at war with not send as many - if any at all - units to fight you. There's been plenty of games I've had where I'll DoW on another Civ, and they'll respond by getting one or two to DoW on me. Then I get a couple of others into the fray, and this allows me to continue to ramp up my forces or infrastructure and when I finally enter the war, it's usually with an upper hand.

 

[CommandoBob]

I like to play the game peacefully because I love researching new technology's and getting cities to join me without force, but whenever i play a game someone always attacks me. I've set the AI aggression to least aggressive but someone always attacks me for no reason.
I hate it how you can't make an alliance without going to war with someone. Any tips? Do i need to give money to my neighbors every turn for them not to attack?

Most likely factor is that the AIs see you as a 97 pound weakling. They need to see you as the biggest, baddest dude on the block. As with a capital 'T'.

Which is what everyone else has been saying, just not as colorfully.

So, build more offensive units when you build units, since the AI rate the strength of your military based on Attacking factors, not Defensive factors. In this regard, Archers are stronger than Spears since they Attack with a 2 and Spears with a 1. And make sure they are Veteran, too, which means building barracks first. Even if you are the biggest and baddest, some semi-suicidal AI will try to prove his or her manhood by declaring war on you. When you go to war the extra hit point of a veteran unit is a big deal. A redlined Veteran is always better than a dead Regular.

 

[SKS]

And also, MPPs will mitigate the damage of being declared war on if something like that does happen. If you're not interested in diverting all resources into a military boom, then sign an MP, and you'll have half the troubles to worry about as your enemies have double.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

or, just attack them first build a stack of cavs, declare, when the AI sends it's stack into your land, whack it then take some cities...

 

[Nergal]

Its a dog eat dog world. Check the military adviser screen you never want to be weak compared with a neighbour.

 

[Allacalander]

I have had a situation occur twice in which a trade is ongoing, relations with an opponent have always been good and then suddenly, without warning, they attack me. The attack doesn't even seem to be intelligently planned (of course it is the AI) because they don't send enough forces to make a difference. All they do is piss me off.

I have two thoughts as to what might have caused this: experts, you tell me how on target I might be.

Thought 1: A new resource suddenly became viewable by the opponent and they notice that you have it in your territory (you may not even know it yet.)

Thought 2: Nationaism just got researched and a civ has switched to Fascism. Now they attack everyone, even though you might serve them better as an ally. (P.S. It bugs me how often they switch to Fascism.)

It these are right, the only advice I can give is to expect the world to change as you enter the Industrial Ages and try to be stronger than they.

 

[vmxa]

Do not discount the holdem concept. IOW at some point you get down to so many big blinds and have to just go all in. I have had them DOW with only 1 city and I had 200-300. Why not they had nothing to lose.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Its a dog eat dog world. Check the military adviser screen you never want to be weak compared with a neighbour.

Very true. Although the AI is dumb in a lot of ways, it's usually fairly practical about war. If you're weak, you've painted a target on your back. After the expansion phase, both the AI and you want more land and resources. Best way is to find a weak neighbor. Make sure it isn't you.

Even in reasonably peaceful games, you need war. Resources, etc. are a lot easier to control if they're in your area.

Also, never trust the AI. Even if they say they love you and deal with you, they still may turn on you. Good relations mean they're less likely to attack, it doesn't mean they won't.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I believe the AI knows where every resource is from the beginning of the game. It may be that they can actually use it... or that they think you are weak - or you have a wonder they want.

really, the AI can attack you for much the same reason you might attack the AI you have been at peace with for 3000 years

 

[Nergal]

Crackers Opening moves site gives a power value for each tile. Basically adding the potential food, shields and gold for the tile. If the AI sees the map in terms of these values then calculates a fat cross value for each tile ie the total value of all the tiles in a fat cross centred on that tile it would explain AI city placement. It means the AI cant actually see the resources but it knows where they are based on the values. It could be that it compares the value of tiles you control with its own to work out whether to war or not.

 

[Bucephalus]

If he says you are avg or weak, expect an DOW soon.

They need to see you as the biggest, baddest dude on the block

If you're weak, you've painted a target on your back....

....even in reasonably peaceful games, you need war

you never want to be weak compared with a neighbour.

No disrespect, guys, but speaking in absolutes like this is just plain wrong. I can think of plenty of games where I have built almost no military at all and have never had a single war, including one HOF/Deity/1300AD/SS victory. 'Spoonwood' also took the peaceful route in many of his HOF games.

As suggested by 'marceagleye', the more you trade, the less likely it is that you will be attacked; sure, you might need to swallow your pride occasionally and give in to demands, but even that is restricted to 'small change' if you are willing to trade techs instead of hoarding them, and who gives a toss about 'small change'? Of course, this approach offers no guarantees that you won't be attacked, but then what approach does?

I find that diplomatic manipulation of the AI can be surprisingly effective.

 

[vmxa]

The term expect is not absolute. That some game has gone one way or the other is not universal. Spoonwood, I don't care about.

I have no doubt it is possible to not have a war, it not very common I would suspect. Since he already has had wars and was asking why, I think the responses you cite are fairly valid. Only Nergal made an absolute statement.

 

[Bucephalus]

The term expect is not absolute.

But terms like 'need', and 'never', and 'biggest', and 'baddest' are. At least one of those terms appeared in every post bar your own. And whether you 'care' about 'Spoonwood' or not is irrelevant; your personal feelings don't alter the fact that he has submitted many HOF games that have played out that way. I too have played such games more than a few times. I think my comment was fair in all except perhaps your own quote, and even then the general tone of it supported the view, if you want peace, prepare for war.

 

[Nergal]

No need to be pedantic Bucephalus, it is possible to have peaceful games but you need to gear up for it in terms of mindset. As far as the AI goes I personally prefer to kick, rather than lick ,ass. I've played peace games, trade and grow and launch the spaceship or build UN. I must admit I find them boring click fests. Given the right conditions players can win without building any military units at all, mainly because they are playing effectively as an ally of the AI and dont pose a military threat. That means supplying techs and lux and cash per turn. The game becomes a balancing act. Its mindset and conditions. I agree with Vxma, its rare I can only recall a few games where I was never attacked. In the vast majority of random games its down to strength, or at least blocking choke points and having an effective mobile force.

 

[CommandoBob]

No disrespect, guys, but speaking in absolutes like this is just plain wrong. I can think of plenty of games where I have built almost no military at all and have never had a single war, including one HOF/Deity/1300AD/SS victory.

Think of them as pep talks instead of hard and fast rules.

 

[vmxa]

My original response was valid to the threads question and as as you noted not an absolute. In fact I even stated it was not a lock to prevent attacks. Your response was to tell us about how others played with no wars.

That is fine, but it is a non sequitur. It would have been fine had you not chosen to say the others were wrong. I do not see any thing in those selected post that is invalid in regards to why am I always being attacked.

Incomplete maybe, not absolutely required true, but germain.