War... War of the Worlds

from Elemental Forums

Every single turn based strategy game I play, I always have the same problem in it.  As the game starts to move a long, one person decleares war on me and never wants to give up even though I've destroyed several of his armies with little losses.  Then another person declears on me... then a third... then the fourth.  It's no different here.  I had a fun game going and and  one neighbor decleared war.  I went on the defensive and started beating him up as he came in my lands.  Then a second deleared war and I was keeping up the defensive good.  Then a third person that I had neutral relations with and a economic treaty with deleared on me.  At this point my forces had to get spread pretty thin and I couldn't keep them replaced.  I lost two of my fortresses and then most of my army.  My leader and 3 champions were all wounded and had several 'strong' armies marching at my last city.  Yup, I was done.

 

So how does one keep everyone from declearing war on him?

7,559 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

By speaking softly, and carrying a big stick (speaking optional)

The best way to have AIs respect you is to be able to kick their ass.  Sometimes, a little preemptive ass kicking comes handy.

For an example of  how a race (that was deliberately designed without clear strengths) strives for respect on Expert difficulty, check this thread.

If you read the whole thing, and do not learn anything, I will gladly buy you a drink next time you're in LA (and I will try to sell you a really nice bridge)

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Personally I hate the whole 'I Can beat you! I'm not really suffering losses .. even tho I've never won' Ai mentallity.

Sometimes.. I'll just whap the person next to me just because they're in my way

Another question is.. Are you blocking trade routes with your cities, or off in a corner?

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Kabanzai, reply 2
Are you blocking trade routes with your cities, or off in a corner?

Can you please rephrase this? I do not understand what you are asking.

Trades routes are useful, and you cannot really block them.

Caravans improve diplomatic relations, bring you 10% more taxable income in your capital, and act as scouts.

You cannot block them - foreign caravans simply go through your cities, and your caravans go even where your scouts cannot.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

It's called dogpiling.  They see that you're at war with someone and decide that now is their best time to strike.  Then another one sees that you're at war with two civs and jumps on as well.

One way to avoid that is to bribe them to go to war with each other.  You can also give non-aggression treaties a go.

Declaring war pre-emptively can work in your favour if you have moved your armies into position near their cities.  Cities are a civ's unit-building capability, so taking as many cities away from them at the start of the war makes an aggressive war go much faster.  Don't feel compelled to hold onto an enemy city longer than five turns if it's too far away from your other cities.  Raze it or just destroy all the buildings so that if it is recaptured, the enemy has to waste time rebuilding them.

Keep your territory contiguous and increase your borders as much as possible.  Enemy units move at the base rate in your territory, so the more distance they have to go to get to one of your cities, the more time you have to respond to an incursion.  For that reason, you may want to build a Stables upgrade at any border outposts, so that your units get double movement.  Very handy in a forest or swamp.

Use Lower Land to open up new, faster routes for your units to take.  Use Raise Land to turn easily-crossed plains into hills, slowing your enemies even outside your influence (but obviously, you can only use it on tiles not inside someone else's influence.

Keep an eye on foreign relations, particularly the AI's current personality traits.  These can give you a clue as to which one is going to be a problem.  Also, you take a diplomacy hit with any civs of the same allegiance (Empire, Kingdom) when you declare war.  So expect them to come after you sooner or later.