Why is my friend suddenly protecting...

catfish99

Warlord
Joined
Feb 13, 2008
Messages
187
...the city-state I am warring against? I've been at war with Venice for five turns, and then I get a notification Persia is protecting them. Questions:

1. I stepped a unit out of Venice territory to heal - will another Civ not protect as long as I have troops in their territory?
2. Since I am already at war, what would trigger bad consequences for me - attacking a unit, attacking the city, taking the city, or nothing?

I really need to snag this city to get access to the seas, but don't want to get denounced or attacked in return. Persia is also friendly with England, my other friend. I need them both happy with me so I can turn my attentions to the other two civs on the continent, who both are telling me to get bent when I ask them not to build cities near me.
 
It seems like you're in the typical position of the AI exploiting your friendship to demand from you and denounce you. Ultimately they will find reasons to denounce you unless you become their patsy, and they'll probably still denounce you anyway.

My advice is to just carry on with prudent expansion, accept the diplomatic hits, and use the friendships as a temporary measure to make sure they don't all attack you together. Kill them all in turn.
 
In my experience, once you start knocking over city-states the AI gets unfriendly very quickly. You just have to accept that as part of the game, especially if (as in your case) you need that city-state for strategic and/or resource reasons.

Just keep your military up to a reasonable level and do what you need to do.
 
I've wondered the same thing. I have the city-state of Brussels on my continent and it is the last non-Greek city on the land mass. I really want to take it in order to solidify my hold on the continent and have access to all resources and tiles. However, my frienemy Arabia stuck their nose in Brussels and now I can't make a move without launching a war.

I don't know if I'm doing it right, but I'm simply leaving Brussels alone for the moment, until I'm strong enough to repel an Arabian attack.
 
I might go back a turn and reload to keep the unit in the City-State's territory and see if he still moves to protect them. Since I am already at war, I can't get a hit for declaring on them, I just want to avoid taking on another civ just yet- and I have other more annoying civs to deal with first.
 
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