If you can attack each other, isn't it just the same as a state of war? I can't think of any kingdom, republic, or anything else that would have ever been OK with its forces being attacked. Such things mean war, or at least, a severing of diplomatic relations.
frekk said:
You might get away with attacking scouts or explorers ... maybe even envoys ... but not ships or armies...
I still can`t think of a single example of this...
http://www.usmm.org/fdr/kearny.html
"We have wished to avoid shooting. But the shooting has started. And history has recorded who fired the first shot. In the long run, however, all that will matter is who fired the last shot. America has been attacked. The U.S.S. Kearny is not just a Navy ship. She belongs to every man, woman, and child in this Nation."
-- President Roosevelt, October 27, 1941
The
Kearny was torpedoed on the high seas by a German U-boat during October; war with Germany did not break out until after Pearl Harbor in December, when Hitler declared war on the U.S.
Admittedly, this is a very specific circumstance that did eventually lead to war, but I think the "gray area" between war and peace would at least be useful for a few scenarios, like WWI and WWII. In both cases the delayed response of full-scale war was more a result of the isolationism of the American population than anything else, but it would be a valid example in the context of a democratic civic in Civ 4. It also hard to see how the
Kearny incident would have played out were it not for the attack on Pearl Harbor. It probably would've led to war with Germany, but without Japan's declaration of war, it is not crystal-clear when this would've happened. In the meantime, however, plenty of engagements with U-boats would've taken place.
I can also immediately think of Saddam Hussein's repeated firing on U.S. warplanes patrolling the No-Fly Zones in Iraq during the late 1990's. It was not an all-out war, but there was definitely shooting, and equipment on both sides was lost.
Perhaps the only way to replicate this in the game would be to limit it to naval and air combat, sort of like with privateers, but even then it would still be useful only in very specific circumstances. That doesn't mean it's a bad idea, though, just that I wouldn't necessarily want it in the epic game.
But to include a new state would take the SDK and changing the first contact dialogue you should be able to mod the python to allow... am i correct?.
