Maximizing your unreasonable demands

[Dog of Justice]

The turn you complete an early wonder, there's a good chance someone else just received a pile of gold to compensate them for their failure.

If you haven't demanded gold from that player before, and you're in a fairly dominant position overall vs. that player, I've found that you can usually demand all they've got in this situation, and they'll comply. Insult to injury!

In at least one case, I found that when I waited one turn to do this, they no longer complied. So there might be an AI bug involved here (though it might also have been coincidence, someone else needs to test this).

[khearn]

Now that's nasty! Its nice to see there is one way we can turn the tables on the AI when it comes to unreasonable demands.

What I hate is when there is a friendly AI that is ahead of me in techs and won't trade any of them, and then when I finally have one they don't have, they immediately come and ask for it for free (not a demand, but a request for help). I've had this happen a couple of times.

I could understand it if I was ahead and they had nothing to trade. I wouldn't even mind if they asked for it for free, but if I refused they'd just say "Oh well, I was just asking" and didn't get a relationship penalty. But liking me less when I didn't give them something they could have easily traded for is just unfair. And it's even more unfair because the AIs don't seem to do it to each other, only to the human player. And this is on noble, which is supposed to have a level playing field.

It's like if your rich friend got upset because you wouldn't buy him dinner. I can see how someone who just lost their job could expect me to pay if we go out for dinner, but if you've got more than me, don't get upset if I don't give you even more.

So it's nice to see a way to stick it to them for a change.

[solomani]

How do you know which AI has failed? Is there a way to check or do you just visit everyone?

Kieth whats your latin sig mean?

Thanks.

[Quillan]

I think it's a variation of a famous quote from Vegetius: "Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum", or "Let him who wants peace prepare for war".

[Cort Haus]

Nice one, DoJ!

[khearn]

Quillan is right. "If you wish for peace, prepare for war."

It's been attributed at times to Cicero and Appius Claudius the Blind, but ithe Vegetius quote is probably the original, and the form in my .sig is a paraphrase. I like the short form better, it rolls off the tonque more easily.

Actually, the original Vegetius quote was "Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum" which is "Therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war".

I've also heard that it (the short form) was the motto of the Roman Legions.

It's also where the name of the 9mm Parabellum round that was used in the Lugar, and is still used in many, many other weapons, from the Uzi to the Glock 17. The story is that that quote was on the wall in the munitions plant in Germany where Georg Lugar designed the round (and the pistol that bears his name).

See

http://www.sacklunch.net/Latin/S/sivispacemparabellum.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_preparewar.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_mm_Parabellum

The quote applies very well in Civ 4. If you want to be a builder, you'd still better have a strong military or you'll get attacked pretty quickly.

[Heroes]

Do you mean you can do this for several times? I find that I can usually get a friend AI to pay for ONCE, but then they will never comply. "You are pushing us too hard ..."

[baboon]

Nice observation, but I'm not going to use it, it feels like an exploit.

[Blake]

AI's seem to be willing to give something for free once every few dozen turns. Cheap techs, world maps, small gold donations, resources, that sort of stuff.