Mutual Protection

[ftrooper93]

Is this ever really a good idea?

I've been a big player in the game before and signed a few mutual protection deals.

Here's my take:

When you're the big dog, and sign them (at no cost or little cost) to basically secure your borders and make sureyou don't have to fight someone, the smaller civs, heck, any of your partners tend to declare war on other folks and drag you into a fight you want to avoid.

When you're little, you basically are paying protection money, which the AI will break if it feels the need or desire/

[Rhothaerill]

I would tend to agree with you. In almost all of my games that last into the mid-Industrial age, MPP fueled world war inevitably occurs. I try to stay out of MPPs to avoid getting sucked into wars and world wars I don't want.

[Argos65987]

I find them to be useful only if I have a rival that could potentially do serious damage to my empire and need help. In other words, only if I can't stand alone or if a gang of AI's are banding together. Although I have seen some games where two major MPPs never fought each other but did get into wars with unaligned nations.

[MattPilot]

just like the real world, were the US tried to stay out of any "collective security" pacts after World War 1. I would try to do the same in the game.

There is no real point in MPP unless you are a warmongerer and YOU want to drag others into a war with you. If you want to stay peaceful, stay out of a MPP.

When your are in a MPP, the AI adds both of your "strength" values together, and makes decisions from that. Either by demanding stuff from third party nations or by going on territoral grabs.

[Bonaparte]

When I am about to go to war with a major AI civ that is adjacent to me I'll sign a MPP with whatever civ that lies along that civs opposite border...that way my victim will have to split its forces and I won't get hit with all of them...this is a standard tactic I use and it works wonders...although the AI civ that signed the MPP with me may not think so.

[justjake73]

Just take a look at WWI, and you'll see why I stay out of MPPs.

[Kropotkin]

Well, if we're three big ones trying to dominate the world and one of them is pissed at me and/or share a long border with, it's nice to be able to get an alliance with the third party that will make a war with me costly. It's also, obviously a great thing for the AIs as the person that plays the game just can't take the AIs out one by one quite as easily.

[Vince278]

Don't use it anymore. MPP has become synonymous with "get dragged into a war you don't want" to me.

[Tattila the Hun]

Does MPP's have deterrent effect? This hasn't been too clear. If a nation would declare war on me, based on my/their military, does an MPP with equally big neigbourring nation cause them to... "think twice"?

[MattPilot]

yes, when the agressor AI thinks about going to war with you, it takes your "power" score & your Ally's "power" score and adds them up.

However, your Ally will do the same. He will add your "power' score to his and make decisions from that - and those decisions will most likely lead to a war you don't want.

[Rasputin]

mPP are great whenever you want to start a war.....

[WarpStorm]

I like them because they will often get everyone into a nice war. With any luck they can keep duking it out well after I've pulled out.

[vmxa1]

Not a big user of them.

[Theseus]

Almost never, unless I am the mack daddy killer civ and have the capability to war with everyone else all at once... then I screw around with Machiavellian stuff.

[Plotinus]

Yes, these are only useful if you're in a Machiavellian mood. Signing a MPP with someone for no particular reason, or purely for a bargaining tool, is asking for trouble.

The one time you need to make MPPs is when your rival is doing so and you believe war is likely. In my game, the dastardly Zulus recently declared war on me, and before I knew where I was everyone else had, too, because they were all in a ghastly huge network of alliances. Annoying not so much for the military threat (I am invincible on my island stronghold) as the fact that all my nice Luxury deals fall though instantly, and the finances of the entire globe cease to flow into my capacious coffers. In cases like this you need to keep an eye on how other alliances are shaping up and, if necessary, sign up some people to your side to even it out. One nice trick is to sign up the *same* people whom your rival does, which might at least weaken his coalition when war breaks out. I'm not entirely sure what happens in such a case. I believe that if there is a civilisation which has a MPP with two powers who subsequently go to war with each other, it will fight on the side of whichever *gets attacked* first, but I could be wrong. Any info on this?