Phoney war

[Brommer]

Originally posted by Hauptman


Generally speaking once in motion they dont deviate, I have experienced this with reloads (because I wasnt ready!).

Just last night. I was tooling along when Monty declares war. I probably didnt need to, but I reloaded 3 turns back and upgraded the huge stack I had in that city. My powergraph then went above his, but he still declared and lost every unit he had.

I have had many experiences with this, the only way out of it, would be a peace treaty from giving in to his demands or making one of your own.

I once reloaded one turn before the enemy declaration of war and signed a defensive pact with the strongest power (which also was a good friend of the attacker). After this I was not attacked. But this was without BtS. I noticed the AI changed a lot with BtS. The simplest way of preventing an enemy attack is of course to give him some useless resource, forcing him to maintain peace for 10 turns.

Coming back to my original situation fro mthe first post, I invaded Charlemagne's territory but only managed to capture a single city before losing the majority of my forces to a massive assault. For some odd reason he gave my another city, all his money and 35 gold per turn for a peace treaty. This is now the second strange peace treaty in this particular game. Earlier I managed to get Louis as my vassal after taking only a single city from him.

[Hauptman]

A gift does not gain a peace treaty. Only giving in to a demand (even a friendly one).

[Brommer]

Really? I hadn't noticed. I thought signing whatever trade comes with a 10 turns peace. Seems I was wrong. Thanks for clarifying.

[Marcusem78]

<<>>

I wonder if this is a leader characteristic. I pounded Justinian and his Byzantines into the ground, and all i wanted was to vassalise them. He stubbornly refused, so I had to continue with this war I didnt want to wage, but I wanted to safely secure that border through vassalage. Eventually he agreed. Other leaders give in after only losing 1-2 cities. Anyone else notice something similar?

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Hauptman
A gift does not gain a peace treaty. Only giving in to a demand (even a friendly one).

I think that's incorrect; at minimum, ANY bilateral trade certainly makes a peace treaty (In BtS only). I haven't really thought about gifts though, as I don't do them much

The AI makes its decision to war with you well before it actually goes to war; and it will not reconsider that war decision. I think it's somewhere between 10 and 20 turns pre-war.

[Brommer]

Originally posted by Marcusem78
<<>>

I wonder if this is a leader characteristic. I pounded Justinian and his Byzantines into the ground, and all i wanted was to vassalise them. He stubbornly refused, so I had to continue with this war I didnt want to wage, but I wanted to safely secure that border through vassalage. Eventually he agreed. Other leaders give in after only losing 1-2 cities. Anyone else notice something similar?

Yes, definitely. Louis surrendered after I took a single city and my troops were approaching his capital. In my next game (same difficulty) I attacked the Dutch and the Khmer and both did not surrender even after I took all their cities except for some useless island colonies. Pacal I wiped completely out without having the chance of getting him as a vassal at all. But they always were willing to give away cities and all their money for peace.

[Nightfire]

I may have gave someone a Peace Treaty by giving them a World Map..but then I was winning the war so he would take anything..

[snoopy369]

Note that Capitulation probability is a bell curve-shaped chance ... they are less likely to capitulate if you have nearly finished them off.

[Marcusem78]

Interesting idea with the bell-curve snoopy, but why would they? Id imagine when youve got 1 city left capitulation is better than extinction...

[snoopy369]

Well, if you want the "realism answer" it would be that if you beat them too senseless they hate you forever.

The gameplay answer is, so you are forced to make more interesting decisions regarding capitulation (ie, earlier on), rather than just having a bunch of one city vassals.