Why wont my allies fight?

[General Civ]

When im at war and my allies agree to fight alongside me...THEY DO NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I basically i have to fight the enemy by myself. Any suggestions? please post before i rant my head off.

 

[General Civ]

DO NOT get permanent alliances if you do not want to steal your friends' resoures and cities.

 

[lost_civantares]

Are you saying that they are just not sending any troops? If you are then it's probably because the AI has decided that they do not have enough military strength to fight and win. The AI in Civ4 won't (usually) send in its troops one at a time so that each one will be killed off before they can do any good.

DO NOT get permanent alliances if you do not want to steal your friends' resoures and cities.

If the city is small enough sometimes the ally will give it to you free. (And isn't the idea of a permanent alliance that it is permanent? , the idea is to win with, not because of the ally! )

 

[General Civ]

Well if you see me play and wait for hundreds of turns of war...no freindly troops dareing to enter enemy territory.

 

[lost_civantares]

How powerful is your enemy? And do you know if the AI is just pilliaging?

 

[General Civ]

I watch their every move...

 

[lost_civantares]

Do you have a save that we could look at then?

 

[General Civ]

i don't know how to do that...

 

[Sisiutil]

i don't know how to do that...

Scroll down in the bottom of the page where you're writing a post or reply. Click on "Manage Attachments". Click Browse. Browse on your computer to a saved game file. Click Upload File. Close the window, submit your reply, Bob's your uncle.

 

[naterator]

the problem, i believe, is that your ally doesn't have a ready made invasion force handy. give him 20 turns or so to build an army, of course, the war'll be over by then. montezuma or alexander will usually send help quickly. sometimes too quickly! i just want my allies to act as a distraction, not conquer cities that i have plans for! i use random personalities now, so i'm never really sure if they'll send troops or not.

If the city is small enough sometimes the ally will give it to you free.

this is a fine point of permanant alliances with AI that people don't realize. but it's not just during war time, it's the cure to all those cities your ally builds all up in your face, just make those cities yours from the start! the first few turns, they won't think twice about gifting you that city that they just built. i've been trying to use this, among other things, to play a single player game with an AI teammate, and attempt to be a complete parasite. the goal is, someday, to produce no research or cities, and as little military as possible. to rely entirely on my ai partner, and help guide him to victory, in spite of me. no luck yet. no victories, at least.

 

[Zombie69]

The AI in Civ4 won't (usually) send in its troops one at a time so that each one will be killed off before they can do any good.

No, you're right. The AI in Civ4 will usually send its troops 3 or 4 at a time so that each small pack can be killed off before they can do any good. Hence, it still sucks.

 

[lost_civantares]

That's why I said "Usually"

At least for me (and not that I'm some great player either!) the AI has been made better from civ3 to civ4.

And who knows, maybe they added somethings in the XP, while there's life, there's always hope!

 

[wiseguy101]

The A.I rarely helps me fight my battles either, but you have to expect that they won't help you fight, because it almost never happens, even if they've already committed to helping you already.

 

[Sohan]

Meh, defense pacts and alliances are for me a way to guarantee (or at least be reasonably sure) that a bunch of people won't attack me. It's not so much that I want help in war, as I just don't want to get in a war at all. But then again, I like building things and protecting those things from my green-eyed neighbors.

 

[El Koeno]

Sometimes the AI just goes in a token war. They just declare war, and do nothing. But still, they won't declare war on you, and you get a diplomatic bonus , that's something.

If they do help, it can help a lot. It can be quite gratifying to see a stack of cossacks totally annihaliting an enemy army marching towards one of your weakly defended cities.

 

[GIO888]

Yup - Defense Pacts and Permanent Alliances seem to only guarantee the other Civ doesn't attack you - but that is enough for me!

 

[Howitzah]

You just have to choose your friends carefully; if you associate with a bunch of weakling techie Civs, then you'll have little help when big bad Napoleon comes knocking at your door.

 

[Codeman]

i would never trust the ai. but it's true. if you want them to make a difference you would need to give them a chance to build the units necessary. if i know i will be invading enemy territory i want to build an attack force. the ai usually builds an attack force before attacking. although these are just excuses because the ai will probably never help the way you need them to. besides, who wants military help from an ai who can not effectively wage war?

 

[Blazer6]

Can't you gift them your troops while your cities continue to build replacements every few turns to hasten the process?

 

[Jarrod32]

And feel free to turn that trick around on the AI, as well. If they ask you to declare war, and you want to enhance relations with that civ, go ahead and declare war. You don't actually have to do anything...

Of course, if you have something to lose, then you may not want to...but if they're on another continent, for example.........