Why doesn't the AI ever give you free stuff?

[ronnybiggs]

LOL not when I'm Gandhi. He's great for "Peace through Strength."

But yeah, it's important to find out what weaknesses you can exploit in your neighbors. Hatshepsut, for example, is a great neighbor you can then take over when the time is ripe for conquest, as she leaves her cities poorly defended. Catherine is also overzealous and easily offended, so I wind up provoking her into attacking a border city when I'm sick of her and ready to attack.

Oh, it's so much fun to piss off people you've written off. Maybe I just like getting slapped by Catherine.

 

[ggganz]

Gifting techs to the AI does not give you any diplo bonuses unless they ask you first.

They do if you give them almost all of them. Also, giving resources is the same way.

 

[ronnybiggs]

Yikes, well, after playing a couple games this weekend, I retract my eariler statement about pissing people off.

The real issue here is to find AIs who are ready to be pleased and friendly towards you. Generally I find a couple of issues that get in the way of this in the early game: First, if I found a religion (which I like to do) I better be ready to spead it into my neighbors' lands, in the hopes of having a neighbor convert. This can sap a bit of resources, but you get a gold bonus if you have a holy city, so it's not so bad. Once a neighbor converts they're pretty much best buds. In situations like this we not only trade techs but give each otehr money. It's nice for running a "war deficit."

You're also going to annoy anybody who's your neighbor in the early game. Unless somebody can point it out, I don't see a way around it - it's the "borders spark tensions" penalty. So try and find civs who are on their other side and be their buddies. Give them anything they want, if they ask for it nicely, do open borders etc. If a neighbor decides to attack you, you might have some pull with your new buddy to attack them from the other side.

Of course, on top of all this, don't show a moment's weakness on your border cities. I find it funny how neighbors can get much friendlier when staring at a stack of swordsmen.

 

[ggganz]

Some civs have declared war on me even though we shared a religion. Of corse, he was cautious, and I think Alexander.