Military Alliance question

[Brundlefly]

If I pay Civ A for a military alliance against Civ B will Civ A attack Civ B?

In my current game, I paid the Iroquois to ally against its neighbor Russians and the English to ally against its neighbor Americans. Next turn I checked the diplomacy screens. I know from looking at the diplomacy.txt file that there are a separate set of diplomacy screen greetings for alliance, peace, and war. When I talk to the Iroqouis he initially talks about kicking Russian butt, the alliance greeting. When I talk to the English, Liz is talking about her "milk bath", the peace greeting...

I can't see the use of paying one civ to ally against another and then have it not fight.

[Skanky Burns]

Go to the Diplomacy Advisor screen ( F4 ) and make sure that both England and America are on that screen (in case you are playing with more than 7 other civs). On the right are some check-boxes. Make sure that the "at war with" option is selected.

Now click on England. Hold shift down, and click on America. If you have an embassy with either of them, it will show you the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

This method is a lot more accurate than reading into their greeting styles - after all, England is at peace with you.

[Brundlefly]

Yes, I checked that as well and it showed I was allied with the English against the Americans. I guess I don't understand it from a programmer's point of view, why English gives the peace greeting when I'm an ally and Iroquois gives ally greeting. I wonder if it means some rulers will fulfill their alliance responsibilities more than others. There's no way to tell if they are keeping your mutual enemy busy militarily other than these screens.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Feephi
I wonder if it means some rulers will fulfill their alliance responsibilities more than others.

That's quite possible. Soren has programed some rudimentary personalities into the Civs, for instance some are harder to trade with than others. So it's quite possible that he aslo made some of them more dependable as well.

[vmxa1]

I have seen a civ agree to fight and not do anything that I could see. Most of the time you will see the CIV A decalres war on Civ B before leaving the advisor screen.

[Willem]

Originally posted by vmxa1
I have seen a civ agree to fight and not do anything that I could see. Most of the time you will see the CIV A decalres war on Civ B before leaving the advisor screen.

It would be a good thing to keep track of, so you'd know who you can count on and who's likely to bail. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Soren has added that aspect into their personalities as well. Maybe I'll just start a thread to see if anyone's noticed.

[DrSpike]

It's hard to tell for sure, but I think I've made civs furious by agreeing to an alliance and not attacking the civ we're allied against in their own territory. As for whether the AI lives up to its agreements in my experience it generally does.

[senor_paul]

The problem I normally have is trying to get my allies to STOP attacking! Quite often I find myself in a war which may be difficult to win so I rope in a few allies. If my enemy's not my neighbour then all I really want is to get them off my back and maybe capture a few 'Gibraltar' style outposts. However, I often find that my allies go straight for the jugular and once a nation is on its knees, rather than excepting a lucrative peace deal, more and more nations join in until they've all got themsleves a peice of an often distant and pointless continent. Honstly, the civ nations would put a pack of hyenas to shame the way they go after dying nations....

[Ironikinit]

Honstly, the civ nations would put a pack of hyenas to shame the way they go after dying nations....

Ain't it cool?

Elizabeth has a reputation for being a backstabber.

The AI civs will at least declare war if you get them to sign a military alliance, but might not do much more. They'll obey MPP obligations too, at least with a token war... MPPs seem to make for more lasting wars and alliances in my experience.

Never be afraid to tell me I'm full of crap. I'm still learning.

[Patience]

In my current game, I am playing the ruskies on regent, all settings random.

After eradicating the germans, I found myself on a continent with the romans, english and french (ROP among us all), with the indians, chinese and japanese far away on another continent.

Now, I wanted to start a war with England, since they were building *my* wonder faster than I could, so I tried persuading France and Rome to start a war with me agains England, but they refused, no matter what I offered.

I could not wait for support, so I declared war, anyway. One turn after, they suddenly wanted to re-negotiate the ROPS's (clever move, that was
This time, however, I was able to sign alliances with them against England, and it only cost me my arms and legs (and some techs)!

My point: The AI seems more interested in joining a military alliance against a nation with whom they have ROP, if you already are at war with them.

Now off, course, my main objective after "securing" London(and the wonder) is to end the war, so that I can start getting my hands on those gems at Marseilles