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So here's a technique I'm sure is familiar to all of you.
I spot a an appealing city not too far from my own borders - a religion founding city is a popular choice, though maybe a resouce or other wonder could entice me. I move some troops to the border, call up their leader, and ask/demand for some cash/tech, whatever they have to spare.
Whether they give it or not, I'm attacking. Generally takes 10 or so turns to get the city and also take/raze anything overwhelmng it with culture. That's enough time to make the leader willing to talk to me again, so I call again, they buy me off for a 10 turn peace treaty. It's perfect timing, because depending on how close the battle was, I might not be in a position to defend the new terrain yet.
Those 10 turns are perfect for healing, re-building troops, and starting production in the targeted city. Then, when the treaty wears off, the process repeats. Sure, I'm giving up diplomacy points with multiple attacks, but if I cared about that I probably wouldn't attack in the first place.
Clearly, this is a pretty lame deal for the target. 10 turns is a pretty short time in any setting, but especially so on Epic/Marathon. That treaty isn't giving them much bang for their buck. But then they're not giving much either. Cities offered are rare, and even then are only small ones nearly overwhelmed by culture anyway. And tech offered . . . actually, I can't remember the last time tech was offered in a surrender.
Seems like two problems. One, peace treaties should be available components outside of combat. "Sure I'll help you with some gold, let's just throw in a treaty for good measure." Seems like it should almost be inherent. 10 turns is fine for that, maybe even 5.
But in a post-war negotiation, as I said, 10 is nothing. So I'd really like to see longer options available. 50 turns, 100, permanent? If I'm looking at a tough spot, I'd hand over a city to Montezuma to buy 100 turns of peace. And there are definitely opponents who should be making that offer to me.
Unfortunately, this doesn't sound like an easy mod since the AI would have to account for it. Perhaps an Xpack option?
I spot a an appealing city not too far from my own borders - a religion founding city is a popular choice, though maybe a resouce or other wonder could entice me. I move some troops to the border, call up their leader, and ask/demand for some cash/tech, whatever they have to spare.
Whether they give it or not, I'm attacking. Generally takes 10 or so turns to get the city and also take/raze anything overwhelmng it with culture. That's enough time to make the leader willing to talk to me again, so I call again, they buy me off for a 10 turn peace treaty. It's perfect timing, because depending on how close the battle was, I might not be in a position to defend the new terrain yet.
Those 10 turns are perfect for healing, re-building troops, and starting production in the targeted city. Then, when the treaty wears off, the process repeats. Sure, I'm giving up diplomacy points with multiple attacks, but if I cared about that I probably wouldn't attack in the first place.
Clearly, this is a pretty lame deal for the target. 10 turns is a pretty short time in any setting, but especially so on Epic/Marathon. That treaty isn't giving them much bang for their buck. But then they're not giving much either. Cities offered are rare, and even then are only small ones nearly overwhelmed by culture anyway. And tech offered . . . actually, I can't remember the last time tech was offered in a surrender.
Seems like two problems. One, peace treaties should be available components outside of combat. "Sure I'll help you with some gold, let's just throw in a treaty for good measure." Seems like it should almost be inherent. 10 turns is fine for that, maybe even 5.
But in a post-war negotiation, as I said, 10 is nothing. So I'd really like to see longer options available. 50 turns, 100, permanent? If I'm looking at a tough spot, I'd hand over a city to Montezuma to buy 100 turns of peace. And there are definitely opponents who should be making that offer to me.
Unfortunately, this doesn't sound like an easy mod since the AI would have to account for it. Perhaps an Xpack option?
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