Questions from a rookie

[Boracks]

I miss the Civ2 advisors.

Yes, the sniping comments between the finance guy and the military guy were quite amusing.

[Theben]

Bah, the science advisor was the best. "Sire, the very cobblestones beneath our feet possess more knowledge than we do. In truth, sire... we SUCK!"

[Ming]

I always liked the drunk war advisor

[Father Beast]

Bah, the science advisor was the best. "Sire, the very cobblestones beneath our feet possess more knowledge than we do. In truth, sire... we SUCK!"

My favorite was my military advisor - "While the scrollheads play with their quill pens, the city defenses remain as thin as parchment. BUILD CITY WALLS!!!"

I still laugh even when I think about it. Hey didn't Brian Reynolds play the military guy?

[Blaupanzer]

They're sniping at each other was great fun, as was their changes in outfits over time.

[rah]

Yes, drunk military was my favorite.

[Willem]

And who do you want to open your borders for, a neighbor or someone on a distant continent?

If you have BtS, make sure you check your diplomatic screen first before you open your borders to someone. If you mouse over a portrait, it will tell you who's the worst enemy of whom. You want to avoid having any trade relations with anyone who's someone else's worst enemy, in order to avoid a diplomatic hit for trading with them. Especially if a civ is the worst enemy of several civs at once.

[rah]

You have to choose sides eventually. It's almost impossible to keep everyone happy.

[Theben]

In general I tell all of them to slag off. All I want is open borders and trade. Keep your petty differences amongst yourselves... at least until I'm ready to attack.

[rah]

If they're my friends and I don't think it will cost me anything, I'll agree.
But I always find it amusing that civs that don't like me and will never like me no matter what I agree to, expect me to help them.

[Ming]

You are always going to piss somebody off. The minute two people go to war, they both ask for you to join in.
I love when somebody who hates me asks me to join in against somebody that is pleased or friendly with me. You just kind of chuckle and wait for your buddy to ask you to attack the enemy. I will usually join in if I don't think it's going to matter much.

But it is rude when they ask you to join in, then they make peace a few turns later, and that enemy is still in the refuse to talk to you turns, and then he moves the stacks he was using against your buddy against you.

You just have to love it

[-Jrabbit]

I routinely accept open borders and rarely join the wars of others. I figure if there's no way to avoid pissing them off eventually, there's no need to overthink it.

I do try to share religions with my nearest/most advanced/most aggressive neighbors.

[rah]

But it is rude when they ask you to join in, then they make peace a few turns later, and that enemy is still in the refuse to talk to you turns, and then he moves the stacks he was using against your buddy against you.

You just have to love it

Yeah, I love joining in figuring that they're on the other side of the world so no problem and then about 12 turns later that 100 unit SOD shows up and you're going WTF, and he's still at war with the other civ. Somehow I feel slightly set up at that point.

[Blaupanzer]

The pass-thru SOD is mostly a surprise even though I have open borders with the civs on my border and they are at war with the passing thru stack too. At some size (40+, 60+, 100+), the AI "ally" lets this stack go by its own cities to see if they have to fight it at all. Generally the route will not include passing by my ally's capitol, but even that may have happened since I don't usually station scouts or horse inside my ally's territory.

[Ming]

I love when one of your units in a friends territory sees that killer SOD from another civ. You look at all the relations and the situation, and usually, plan on it coming at you. You relocate your army in anticipation, and then it moves through your territory and attacks somebody else