No, but it does tend to throw a wrench in the AI's already terrible warmongering ability when they suddenly lose a bunch of amenities upon declaring war on you.
In theory, selling or gifting luxuries to Monty should make Monty less likely to attack because of his agenda to like you if you don't have luxuries he does not own.
There is a favourable diplomatic modifier. But don’t forget that, like the human player, deciding whether to go to war is less about “I don’t like you” and more about “can I win?”
Obviously the AI isn’t very good at winning, but somewhere in its clockwork brain it decided you’d make a juicy target.
The only real diplomatic defence against a war is securing that declaration of friendship, and then entering an alliance which will stop either side from declaring war on each other until it expires.
The only real diplomatic defence against a war is securing that declaration of friendship, and then entering an alliance which will stop either side from declaring war on each other until it expires.
To clarify a little bit, you don't need an alliance to stop war declarations, declaration of friendship is enough.
So, in that sense, if, by gifting them a luxury, you manage to push your relationship to a positive enough level to get a DoF, then it'll indirectly protect you from war.
A good question, that I'm sure some of the more number-savvy forum members have looked at, is how much positive relationship you get with a gift (I'm sure it depends on the size of the gift).
Otherwise, try to fulfill their agendas when reasonable, and pay attention to relationships between AI, since there is a diplo modifier for being a friend to a friend, a friend to a rival, etc.
Edit: Oh, and of course, send them a delegation the moment you meet them. And open borders (unless it allows them to settle a city where you don't want them to). Have a trade route to/from them.
Some good advice here, particularly about pushing relationships into DoF. Selling Luxes on reasonable terms (usually what the AI offers rather than micro-ing to squeeze out every dollar), gifting Open Borders and Joint Wars are all good ways to make friends.
You can also try getting DoF before you do things that will Super annoy them, like forward settling or declaring surprise wars on others.
A 'favorable trade deal' gives you a positive relation modifier between 1 and 10. Gifting a luxury resource is a big 'favorable trade deal' for the AI so will influence their opinion about you a lot to the good side (the numbers vary, but in the early/mid game it will most likely be more than +5). If the AI is already preparing for war against you, they might even get a positive attitude towards you, but won't accept a friendship (that's a big red flag for war). If they have not yet decided to wage war on you, then getting them to like you with 'bribes' is a good strategy to get them to be friends and prevent them from ever warring you.
In short: yes, gifting luxuries can help prevent an attack by setting the AI up for friendship, unless they already decided that you are ripe for the taking.
In short: yes, gifting luxuries can help prevent an attack by setting the AI up for friendship, unless they already decided that you are ripe for the taking.
The perfect answer only further qualified by
Settle to close to them or you are in their realm of expansion and only military strength will stop them
They may chose a joint war bribe anyway.
The advantage of gifting a lux is the gift cancels with declaration so it is something they will lose if they go to war, but without the code we just do not know the real considerations.
The diplomatic benefits degrade quickly and they do not alter mood immediately so keeping the gifts coming at +10 help... but often it’s a panic pay off too late.
The perfect answer only further qualified by
Settle to close to them or you are in their realm of expansion and only military strength will stop them
They may chose a joint war bribe anyway.
The advantage of gifting a lux is the gift cancels with declaration so it is something they will lose if they go to war, but without the code we just do not know the real considerations.
The diplomatic benefits degrade quickly and they do not alter mood immediately so keeping the gifts coming at +10 help... but often it’s a panic pay off too late.
To sum up, the best way to keep them friendly is to have a couple of fleets of Frigates parked off shore from their capital, or as was (nearly) said IRL:
"A Man-of-War is your best negotiator"
When you reach your capacity, start giving away your excess Strategics to civs that aren't going use them to kill you. Works like a charm. Get up into the green modifiers then lock down that Declaration of Friendship.
Gilgamesh can be friended immediately, and kept that way all game if you want. Monty wants to have the same or more luxuries than you, again pretty easy to befriend. Wilhemina just wants you to trade her something, anything! Everyone has their little quirk that if you satisfy it they will be your best friend. Except for Dido, who is an unpredictable lunatic.
One side note, even if they get in the green, if they've already started marching towards your city to attack (even if from 30 tiles away, yes) they will always refuse the DoF, even if your relationship modifier is +100. They will also always refuse DoF once you are close to victory (but will offer it on their turn still... which is weird).
Best defense is to never invite them to see your city early game. They can decide to march on you that very same turn and nothing diplomatic you can do will prevent that early DoW.
Also, never give them open borders unless you are sure they are not attacking you (i.e. if they are currently at war with someone else or a city state or if they do not know where your city is). In which case gifting open borders alone is +3, plus favorable trade if you do not ask anything in return (can be as high as +8 in my exp... or nothing; there are times AIs value open borders from you more than others)
What happens when you trade a fixed number of horse(e.g.) or diplo favour for GPT? Does the AI suffer in any way from breaking a deal if they declare war before making all payments? I can't say I've ever noticed getting a DoW from a civ that was still paying off what amounts to a loan, but I'm sure going to pay attention now.
This question can go both ways...what happens if a player makes a massive gpt deal for a bunch of strategic resources....can you get out of paying for them by declaring war? Or do the payments continue? Just occurs to me that I have no idea how this works and never bothered to monitor changes to my GPT after getting DoW
This question can go both ways...what happens if a player makes a massive gpt deal for a bunch of strategic resources....can you get out of paying for them by declaring war?
The gift alone won't stop them but the gift does improve your relation with them by a large amount (+10 per turn I think) which may bump you up enough to where they will agree to declare friendship with you and that will prevent them from declaring war. So, yes giving a gift can be a good way to prevent war if you follow up with an offer to declare friendship.
If the gift alone doesn't get you there, maybe you can get them to at least agree to open borders. After a few turns of getting +relations from the gift and open borders you may hit friendly territory. I have used this strategy many times when I notice an AI army approaching my territory. It's not guaranteed that you will get the friendship but it's worth a try if you really want to avoid war. Of course the best thing you can do is to maintain a good relationship from the beginning. If you really want a peaceful game one of the most important things you can do is offer open borders and send a delegation immediately upon meeting a new civ. Otherwise your relationship will begin to go downhill and they will not accept any offers.
Recently as Catherine, I saw Mongolian horsemen approaching my northern cities and quickly gifted Genghis gold and luxuries. It wasn’t enough to get a DoF, but his horsemen veered away to Egypt and he took three Egyptian cities instead. And because they were so far from Mongolian land, they rebelled and I swept in to take them. Best bribe I ever handed out.
If you don't settle close to them they'll settle close to you and I find that has the same effect. Teddy once built a city very close to my capital in the early game and then two turns later complained about me settling too close to his city!
I say your chances are better if you sell your resources, then buy units with the gold. If it doesn't scare them off, then at least it'll help you win the war.
If you don't settle close to them they'll settle close to you and I find that has the same effect. Teddy once built a city very close to my capital in the early game and then two turns later complained about me settling too close to his city!
the thing is, he settles close to you and you have no diplomatic points to ask for a promise. Now his city is close, any city you settle with 8 or so of his will cause the opposite. It’s a bit of a silly mechanic in this early stage and any grievances from it too small to worry about so doubt it will ever be changed, it is just not damaging enough to be changed.
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