Getting another civ to attack...

cpemma · August 20, 2001, 19:43

How can I get the Celts to attack me? We're in a spaceship race, I've loads of tanks and howies and a clear run to her capital. But the Senate won't let me fire the first shot.

We're in cease-fire and they're clustering my border cities but won't shoot.

So far I've put engineers under their noses and bribed any loose units.

Paul L · August 20, 2001, 21:55

They will probably sneak attack you sometime. Otherwise you should change to communism or Fundamentalism if they don't take the bait.

Paul L · August 20, 2001, 21:55

Too bad that you can't ask for tribute when your rep/dem

splangy · August 20, 2001, 22:18

if you have statue of liberty you can revolt/declare/go back to demo, if your strong enough you can revolt without the statue, but that may hert you chance at the stars....

Smash · August 20, 2001, 22:33

You have several things to try.

1.Try contacting a 3rd party civ.Sometimes they will ask you to declare war against someone....if not try asking for an alliance.Often you get similiar demands to form an alliance.

2.Keep trying to attack every turn.Maybe,you'll get lucky and "Hawks confirm action blah blah"

3.Statute of Liberty as mentioned,or use oedo years to advantage.Overthrow your gov.

4.Occupy squares and taunt.A peace treaty is much easier in this situation.Occupy squares and refuse to leave(making sure it is the year before an oedo year).Keep contacting every turn.

5.Sure-fire:commit an act of espionage.Steal tech or sabotage.Do it just before an oedo year once again.It is almost guaranteed your gov will collapse but you will have the war you want.

The game knows what the situation is.You almost certainly will have to use option 3 or 5.

Winston · August 21, 2001, 04:47

Gift them with a Spy unit or two, then sit back and wait until they steal one of your techs (shouldn't take more than a turn or two if they're nearby). This will give you a valid reason to declare war without taking the reputation hit.

finbar · August 21, 2001, 09:56

This, unfortunately, doesn't always work. I've had an AI civ - with whom I'm not at war - send diplos into my cities without being given the option to declare war. They must have been stealing techs. And before anyone suggests they were investigating the cities, they were the same couple of cities. And before anyone says you can't steal more than one tech from the same city ...

... I rest my case.

Winston · August 21, 2001, 10:10

If they steal techs, a message will pop up advising you of the theft - including the option to declare war. If they investigate a city of yours (rare, but I've seen it) you'll also get a message that the city has been investigated. The case you're describing might be of an AI envoy attempting sabotage and failing.

Anyway, gifting the AI Spies and waiting for them to steal techs (provided you're ahead) hasn't failed me yet. You avoid the collapse of government and you don't take any hits to your reputation.

EmperorMing · August 21, 2001, 14:21

What is oedo years?

I must say my view on the Statue Of Liberty has changed drastically. From being one of those wonders you started building just to have some shields ready for the "important wonder", it has become a wonder I build in every game. It is really useful under democracy when you forget to turn a city into order after "civil disorder", and the whole empire is in anarchy.

A must have if you "missed" the United Nations under democracy!

Smash · August 21, 2001, 14:25

There is a bug or feature with MGE that sometimes you don't get a pop up.You'll see a dip or spy go in..but thats it.Then you check the city and find your barracks are gone.
I've also seen the message "xxxxxxs acquire The Wheel"(or whatever).They stole the tech but it looks like they got thru a trade or hut.

oedo discovered that the year government changes take effect is not random.The pattern is xxxO.Meaning no,no,no,yes.Starting at 4000bc the 1st oedo year is 3850bc.A revolt should be held the turn before.1 turn or instant revolutions at will.

cpemma · August 21, 2001, 17:49

Quote:

5.Sure-fire:commit an act of espionage.

That worked but the government fell. As EmperorMing said, SOL is great for both fast recovery from revolutions and for allowing Fundy without the research.

One afterthought I'll try some day - building an unguarded city next to a foreign unit - is that sure-fire? Snag is they get a tech.

Having captured most of the enemy cities and seen the shield count, I'm a bit perplexed how they were buiding their SS so fast. One thought is they might be selling improvements to rush-buy.

Smash · August 21, 2001, 19:42

no the ai cheats.It has tiny sheild boxes for SS parts.Higher the level,the smaller the boxes.Use a spy to investigate or cheat/reveal map to see.

jpk · August 23, 2001, 13:48

If you have more than enough money and there are no AI units in your territory, it sometimes works to give the AI civilization a lot of money and then demand they remove their units from your territory.

splangy · August 23, 2001, 13:55

Quote:

Originally posted by jpk
If you have more than enough money and there are no AI units in your territory, it sometimes works to give the AI civilization a lot of money and then demand they remove their units from your territory.

why give them money???

jpk · August 23, 2001, 14:09

Why give them money? Possibly you want to maintain a spotless reputation for the entire game.

My suspicion is that giving an AI civilization gives it the illusion of being more powerful and that makes it more likely to attack. I have not done any systematic checks of this though.

cpemma · August 23, 2001, 15:46

Quote:

One afterthought I'll try some day - building an unguarded city next to a foreign unit

Today being the day, I loaded an earlier save and tried above.

City was ignored for 2 turns, then a sneak attack on a poor engineer. They seem to be preferred targets if the AI has a choice.