Random Declaration of War Against Russia Ruined My Life

[AloysiusAuebauch]

Hi all, slightly miffed because I was reaching the last quarter of a marathon game on Civ 4 Gold, as the Czechs, doing very well, having just signed three defensive pacts with Maghreb, Sweden and Croatia, when, at the close of a turn, it informs me that these defensive pacts have been cancelled because I supposedly "declared war on Russia" despite the fact that I hadnt actually yet met Russia. Anyone know why this might be? I had a similar problem in an earlier game (without the Gold mod) as the Greeks, supposedly declaring war on the Vikings (despite us having relatively close relations, the same religion, the Apostolic Palace etc...)... I tried reloading both from autosaves 4 or 5 turns before, but the same action is triggered... anyone know why this is? Ta.

[Seedle]

If a civilization declares war on any member of a defensive pact, all other members of the pact declare war on the offending civ. So most likely, Russia declared on one of your pact members, activating the pact, and causing you to declare on Russia.

[Unimatrix11]

In addition, i make the assumption, that in ´gold´, too, defensive pacts cancel out once they are activated (meaning, they only are good for one war).

[joncnunn]

That's right. But in the mean time your going to get + points with everybody on the same side of the war while all of them get - points with Russia which will make it that much easier to get involved in a second go around against Russia.

[Blaupanzer]

"as the Czechs, doing very well, having just signed three defensive pacts with Maghreb, Sweden and Croatia," (AloysiusAuebauch)

How does one get multiple civs that are obviously some sort of mod? Do you just go in and change the names in the custom screen at the start? I do this with the primary civ (mine) at the start but hadn't thought to do that with the others.

[Supr49er]

Are you playing a mod or scenario?

Welcome to Apolyton AloysiusAuebauch.

[jnh140]

Originally posted by Seedle
So most likely, Russia declared on one of your pact members, activating the pact, and causing you to declare on Russia.

See if you can hop into the world builder and investigate where russia is if you are really confused by this. ive never tried this, but hey, its worth a shot.

[Unimatrix11]

If all your pact members are in war with Russia now, the case is quite clear and everything works as supposed to - so i´d check on that first... (if it´s possible when not having contact with russia yourself - which i am not sure about)

[wodan11]

I don't see what the problem is. You're at least *aware* of Russia, despite not having contact with them. You know they're a country on the other side of the world. Then, your ally tells you they have been attacked and that they are activating the defensive clause of your treaty with them. So you have no choice but to declare war on this nation you've never met.

Perfectly plausible, and I'd be surprised if it hadn't even happened in history.

[AloysiusAuebauch]

Hello all, thanks for the welcome... I haven't been to review the situation yet (just got back from work, dont have net on my laptop yet so using main family pc), but I can elaborate on what I know.

First of all, the three countries I had defensive pacts with were all in my (western) hemisphere and, until 30 or so turns ago, no western hemisphere nation had, as far as I am aware, come into contact with an eastern hemisphere civilisation... First contact was made by one of their hemisphere (Austria), followed by Ukraine and Lithuania (I'm playing a vaguely Eastern European themed game +Maghreb for some reason) and I was not aware from the bulletin thing of anyone else going to war with Russia (who I was only aware of from maps I had exchanged with the Lithuanians). 3 or 4 turns after my pacts, it suddenly said "The Czech Empire has declared war on Russia" (or something to that effect) followed by (I think) the abolishment of 3 defensive pacts, the only ones I had.

I'm fairly sure that's true, but I will look into it... Maghreb dont really seem like they're the warfare type, Croatia are a bit nuts but that's mainly because they're being greedy hogging one religion to themselves... I wouldnt put it past the Swedes I guess... I'll update you all in an hour or so...

[jnh140]

on the plus side, im pretty sure it will be a toothless war and your old def. pacts will have bonuses "our mutual military struggle brings us closer together" to your attitudes. shouldn't ruin your whole LIFE anyway

[AloysiusAuebauch]

forget it jnh, my life is RUINED, i just knew YOU wouldnt understand *sulks*

oh btw... those who said it was due to my defense of an ally were apparently right, but it still said my allies (including those attacked by the russians) cancelled their defensive pacts... it didnt last long though, and the game seems to have devolved into chaos with people attacking others seemingly randomly at the moment...

on a sidenote, anyone know what pieces of music are used for the Albanian and the Austrian/Bulgarian civilisations? I quite like them, even though the former sounds more Arabic than Eastern European...

[Blaupanzer]

There, there, dear. Did we establish what variation you are playing, AloysiusAuebauch. Neither those civs or accompanying music is available in any mod I am aware of. (Not really hard for that to be the case, as I am not big on mods. )

[johnmcd]

Perfectly plausible, and I'd be surprised if it hadn't even happened in history.

It's more or less how the Persian wars with Greece started, fights on their mutually distant colonies, and the Persian king declares war on 'Greece' even though his best intelligence tells him it is at the edge of the world. They do eventually come to blows of course, but initially he may as well have been declaring war on the Martians for all he knew.

[AloysiusAuebauch]

It's the Civ Gold mod apparently, it has nearly 100 (mostly obscure) civilisations... It may well be the same music as an official Civ IV civ uses