Someone is bucking for a war, but who?

[D4everman]

I don't know who to trust so I don't trust any of them. Me, the Indians, surrounded by the americans and the chinese to the west, japan, the persian and the incas to the east, and napoleon to the south. This continent must be bigger than I thought or theres another close enough to get to bu galley because monty and mansa musa are out there somewhere. Mansa seems to be 2nd in the little score menu, right under me. Now, I have a fairly decent chunk of land, the largets civ so far on the continent and we're all about level as far as I can tell in technology. I was falling behind a little bit but a few trades have kept me on a fairly even level. Its around 1100 AD.

Each one of these guys at some point has asked me to to stop trading with someone or go to war against someone with them, mostly against the persians. Going to war with persia is useless for me. They're too far away to really bother me right me right now, and even if I did I don't want any of their land because its too far away to effectively govern without hassles. At one point Roosevelt wanted me to go to war with the french (I note that he didn't declare ware after I said no) and to be honest, Boney looks like a good target. So do the japanese, and I've been shoring up my border with units. I'm sure Tokugawa will get belligerent once he has a few samurai. (He's the only one I have no open borders agreement with right now) I don't want to piss boney off too much since i might need his aid if the japanese need a beating. I also would like to take a bite out of roosevelt.

I guess the problem is that I know one of these guys are going to attack me sooner or later. I can bolster troops in all of the border cities, but lets be for real....with the exception of the capital and the ocean facing cities they are ALL border cities. I need to weaken or destroy someone and take their stuff to make me stronger or its going to be a nightmare once gunpowder and knights/cavalry become common.

All of the AI's fluctuate between annoyed, cautious to occassionly pleased with me, but I don't think any of them like me enough to rely on that. Hell, Roosevelt won't trade techs because "he doesn't like me enough" even when pleased. (The old fogey....I'm going to FDR him alright...Freaking Death Rally!) Any suggestions? Who is most likely to cause trouble out of the Americans, the French, The Japanese and the Chinese?

[trev]

It is best to maintain a friendship with 2 or 3 AI's at most, and these AI's should also be friendly with each other. They are the only ones to have Open Borders agreements with and do resource and tech trades with. Ideally your religion should be the same as one or more of these friends.
If you do this and also go to war when your friends ask, they will usually join your wars when you are attacked also. For this to happen you must also keep your military to a good strength also.
Play your cards right with the trades and agreements and they will all be fearing you, there is no need to fear them.

[Willem]

Re: Someone is bucking for a war, but who?

Originally posted by D4everman
Any suggestions? Who is most likely to cause trouble out of the Americans, the French, The Japanese and the Chinese?

Napolean, he's kind of crazy. I've had him declare war on me even though he was badly outgunned and out teched. I put him in the same league as Montezuma, one of those civs you have to watch your back with. Roosevelt generally doesn't attack unless he has a good lead militarily, same with Tokugawa. And the Chinese over all are fairly peaceful, they generally like to be left alone. I don't recall them ever declaring war on me.

[xmixmasterx]

haha, napolean declared war on me and i never saw his troops.

[Swiss Pauli]

Attack Toku ASAP. He won't trade, so he's simply getting in the way. I've never let him get as far as Samurai if he borders me.

[gdijedi7]

From all I've heard, the Americans won't attack you for the most part. If France is led by Napoleon, take him out or he'll take you out. Tokugawa is hard to please, and even if you get him to like you, you won't get anything out of the relationship. The Chinese have never attacked me.

The long and short of it is, Take out Napoleon and Tokugawa. If Louis is there, just take out Tokugawa. After that, eliminate civs at your leisure

[D4everman]

I haven't finished the game, but it looks like Mansa is going to win the spaceship victory. He's leading in tech and I can't make up the space since no one will trade with me...well, no one that has anything that I don't know.

The Americans and the mongols (sorry, its mongols, not chinese as in my OP) never attacked me. Neither did Napoleon. I needed uranium wich the persians had and since they bordered me and the french I bribed Nappy into attacking them. He beat them down enough so that when I made my move there was little resistance. (I only wanted 2 of their cities)

I can't stop Mansa without an all out war, but I'll probably have to fight the japanese too. They don't like me much and they DO like Mansa. Even Nappy won't go to war with them. Plus I think I'll lose an all out war with Mansa. He's never had any conflicts but he does have an advanced and large army. I'd have to go through the japanese to reach him, and as I said they'd probably join Mansa and attack me.

[axisworks]

I've actually been able to get Tokugawa to ask me if I wanted a defensive pact Mind you, at the same time he wouldn't give me his world map, even for a thousand gold. That guy is insane. The best allies I've had over all the games have been Hatshepsut and Mansa Musa. Catherine's been nice as well.

[One_more_turn]

I usually base my priorities in whacking AI civs based on following criteria:

1. Who is the closest one? Always ally with far away nations and attack close neighbors. That was essentially the strategy Qin kingdom used to unify China.

2. Who has the best land, or rather, who is the leading AI civ in scores? If you can bring down the top dog, you might as well have locked down the victory.

3. Who is going to backstab, or who is a vicious AI civ? Before you go after the top dog, you need to avoid 2 front wars.

4. Who is likely to win a Space race? The AI is notoriously good at winning the space race, and it's usually a financial civ that has the lead in technology. So by late game, Washington, Mansa Musa, Catherine, Qin Shi-Huang, Elizabeth, Victoria, and the Inca guy are prime targets.

[Yosho]

Actually, the Chinise seem to love to backstab me as soon as I have to thin out my defences on his border to fight a war somewhere else...they've done it to me two games in a row, and both games he was my religion and on decent terms with me.

On the other hand, the Americans have never attacked me yet, at all.

[Bkeela]

Ironic that war mongering America is placid in Civilization IV. I wonder if it is a deliberate public relations exercise by Firaxis?

[Willem]

Originally posted by Bkeela
Ironic that war mongering America is placid in Civilization IV. I wonder if it is a deliberate public relations exercise by Firaxis?

Not that placid. I've seen the Americans be pretty aggressive in some games. Once against me. And I got my butt kicked too.

[xmixmasterx]

yah, i've never seen them start a war before 1942, but then they just start tearing the world apart.