Situation with Sitting Bull

[James Lofton]

Sitting Bull owns some islands very close to my main continent. However, I have most of my military presence in a more strategic area of the globe. To put this in "real life" terms, Sitting Bull is basically Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti.etc. My military is dealing with two conflicts(one big, the other pretty minor), and my homeland is a bit weak, especially my coastline cities. He isn't a major power, but does have enough military to quickly move in and invade a few cities. In fact, he's likely doing a build up specifically to do this. His navy is out of port so he's definitely cooking something up.

I don't really want to fight 3 wars at the same time, but I also don't want a potential quagmire on my homeland while fighting overseas.

Basically I have these options:

Do a naval blockade around his islands

Do nothing until other wars have ended

Invade him and destroy these islands

Invade him until he becomes a vassal

What would be the best course of action in this scenario?

[wodan11]

e) get him to join the war against your first 2 enemies

f) get a 5th nation to attack him (he almost certainly won't DOW you if he's already at war)

[rah]

The last time I was +17 diplo with the NA and my troops crossed the boarder to fight a war he asked me to join, 11 turns later he attacked me. SO my suggestion is to bait him and once you've taken out his initial assualt, he will be neutralized and you can take him at your leisure.

[Theben]

What's the tech situation between the 2 of you?

[GeoModder]

Another option is to gift him something minor so he can't attack you for 10 turns.

[James Lofton]

He wont join me in other wars. We're definitely not the greatest of friends. No one else in the world will help me either. I'm pretty much "George W. Bush's America" at this point.

He's behind me tech wise as his air force is primitive and has yet to acquire stealth. I actually think he did quite a bit of trading to even get that as his islands don't have a ton of resources.

One thing I forgot to mention is he has open borders with Isabella, who is actually one of the only leaders I fear in Civ IV. She can crumble an empire at the drop of a hat. This is actually one of the more interesting games I have played yet. Gandhi is not on this game, and my strategy usually has him as a factor.


As far as paying him off for temporary peace, I normally don't use that strategy, although may have to at this point. Actually, its a good idea. Pay him off, and wind down the Chinese War by sending my Navy over to Sitting Bull's chain of islands.

A quick question...

When fighting a war and your enemy does no offensive moves, is this basically a sign they don't want the war, even though they refuse to talk?

[joncnunn]

Personally, I would modernize the defenders of coastal cities and keep sufficient navy in home waters to deal with naval threats while focusing on winning the wars your already in. Also modernize the navy if it isn't already. This is bound to require less resources than it would to send the ships over there.

Oh, and you may need to lower the science rate temporarily if your short on cash for the unit upgrades.

[Theben]

I take it you aren't going for a space race victory, since you've hinted that you have stealh tech. If you are and you do have that high of a tech level, I'd pull my troops back to my continent and dig in, keeping a small contingent ready to attacks civs that may beat you race wise.

[wodan11]

When fighting a war and your enemy does no offensive moves, is this basically a sign they don't want the war, even though they refuse to talk?

Not in my experience.

From what I know of the AI coding, the AI basically assigns each unit a "job" which might be (in general terms) "garrison and protect this city" or "offensive / wait for an enemy then form a SOD".

If you're at war and the AI isn't sending any offensive units, then the most likely situation is that the AI has no offensive units.

[Theben]

Or they're attacking someone else.