Keeping your nation's reputation Spotless

[jez9999]

One thing I've noticed on the higher difficulty levels of Civ2 is that if your reputation drops below Excellent (eg. Questionable), things become VERY tough. Unless you're hell bent on military conquest and have overwhelming power, the computer will ally against you and the game will consist of you being slowly but surely defeated. Not fun.

So I thought it might be an idea to compile a list of things that do and don't negatively affect your reputation. I got mine down to Questionable by breaching a peace agreement and a cease fire agreement. That's all. Then it never improved for the rest of the game. I know about stuff like the Eiffel Tower, but ideally you don't want to need that (and besides it's needless resources toward a wonder that could be going toward another wonder!)

So,
Things that DON'T negatively affect reputation:
- Declaring war on (attacking) an enemy when their diplomatic status is at CONTACT - there's no cease fire agreement.
- Attacking the enemy after they've declared war on you (they can usually be diplomatically enticed to do this quite easily if you keep demanding tribute).
- If you're in an alliance, your allies may say they've been attacked by a nation and ask you to declare war on them by the terms of the alliance (even if you're currently at peace with that nation). As far as I can tell, your reputation should remain spotless if you agree to this request. (confirmation anyone?)
- Establishing an embassy with a nation (that sinister sound effect when you perform this action might make you think it's an aggressive act or something, though :-)

Things that DO negatively affect reputation:
- Cancelling an alliance (I'm not sure on this, confirmation anyone?)
- Attacking a nation you're at peace or cease fire with.
- Diplomat/spy sabotaging/stealing tech from a nation you're at peace / cease fire / allied with (for a spy, this is only IF the spy gets caught).
- When you talk to another nation, they may 'ask you to declare war on' an enemy, basically because they hate them. If the requesting nation is NOT allied to you (ie. it's not an 'official request by the terms of an alliance'), and you say yes and declare war, it has a negative impact on your reputation. Beware of this. Presumably this only happens if you're currently at peace with / cease fire with the nation you're declaring war on. If your diplomatic status is at CONTACT, I don't think it would impact negatively.
- If you're at peace with a nation and your military unit(s) are within their cities' territory, you'll get a request to remove them. If you say no and renounce the peace treaty, it negatively affects your reputation.




I think these lists are important as I personally like to play the game with nothing other than a Spotless reputation; at bare minimum, Excellent. Anything less and the enemies will ally against you, and nobody will want to make peace with you, let alone ally with you. Very annoying.

Any additions to / corrections of this list are appreciated.

[debeest]

My impression (but it may come from the manual, which would make it highly suspect) is that if anyone asks you to declare war on someone you're at peace with, you do take a reputation hit, but less of a hit than if you just go to war on your own. I don't remember any reputation exemption for going along with such a request from your ally, but maybe I just haven't made the distinction.

[Scouse Gits]

I really am dredging my memory here - I rarely have alliances - but do you not take a rep hit for refusing to go to war when an ally requests this?

Stu

[jez9999]

I'll need to do some checking of this I guess, but I seem to recall that I did this once and my reputation immediately after that had remained at spotless. I was thinking that it was totally 'justifiable' to take the action as the alliance 'forced' you to go to war, which was why you didn't take the rep hit.

[Elephant]

You do not take a Rep hit when you refuse an ally's request to go to war, but that ally's attitude will likely go downward. If you agree to go to war with a civ that you are at peace with, you definitely take a Rep hit, but not as much as if you broke a peace treaty out of the blue.

[StuporMan]

I believe that if an ally asks you to declare war on someone you have a peace treaty with, then you will take a rep hit if you accept the offer to declare war. You will not if you refuse.

Also, IIRC there is an expiration date on all cease fires to the tune of 10 turns. After this point, you may declare war again (even via an attack) without a reputation hit. This is useful when someone builds one of the forced cease fire wonders and you still want a spotless conquest win.

StuporMan

[debeest]

Elephant has this exactly right: "You do not take a Rep hit when you refuse an ally's request to go to war, but that ally's attitude will likely go downward."

I believe he also has this exactly right: "If you agree to go to war with a civ that you are at peace with, you definitely take a Rep hit, but not as much as if you broke a peace treaty out of the blue." But I'm not quite sure that you still take a hit if it's an ally who asks you.

I think it takes up to 16 turns of ceasefire before you can attack without a rep hit. In my experience, the AI almost always sneak attacks (um, that is, "the ceasefire has expired") before that opportunity arises.