Cashing in from Wars

[Kev]

umm, not sure if this is anything news to u guys... but since i have benefitted in the game so greatly from the tips i have read in these threads, I thought i should share some of the thing i observed in the game too.

Anyways.. I came across this little exploited/trick (whatever u want to call it) couple of days ago when i was playing on my first regent game on a huge map with bunch of little Islands. After i successfully conquered the entire island/continent, I begin a series of peaceful developments. Since it was an island, my military was pretty weak. The English, the most powerful nation at the time, declared war on me. I quickly ask the Persians, who were in their continent to declare war on the English. English ask Russia, also on their continent, to join the war. To make a long story short: Persia was doomed. However, while their war raged on the distance continent, i generally didnt' do much fighting beside the occational capturing of English outpost on another island. As Persia lost, I made peace with russia and made her declare war against English(AI doesn't seem to give a crap about past friendships). So they fought awhile with Russia slowly losing ground. While all this was happening and my alliance with Russia was up(20 turns later), I ended the alliance peacefully and went to England to sue for peace.. unwilling to give that whore any of my cash i tried to think of alternative offers. That's when i realize the power of alliance.. When i told her that i was willing to declare war on Russia on the table, not only was she willing to have peace, she was willing to give me 40+ gold/per turn for my support. So anyway, the war went on well past 20+ turns and i didn't use a single unit since their continent was too far for me to reach with my galley. The English eventually killed the Russian off but i was happy to get a large sum of cash by not doing a single thing.. i tried this later in the game with different nations as they would all pay me to join their cause while i don't send a single troop over... so anyways, that's my 2 cent.

[MarshalN]

I think that'd only work on a map with small continents though

On a large continent with lots of civ, it's tough to do that.

[Nakar Gabab]

Indeed... getting other civs into wars is one of the finest defensive tactics I know of. When Rome or Germany or whoever marches through TWO countries to attack me, I immediately buy the services of those countries. Better that the front lines be in THEIR country than mine, right?

[Admiral PJ]

You have to be careful using alliances to help you though, if the alliance is with a powerful civ, like China in my England game.
They can capture all your enemys cities before you do and then they'll be much tougher when you have to take them on later.
I'm trying to block the Chinese against my enemy the Russians.

At least having 2 taking over a civ makes it easier to assimilate the cities when there aren't so many.. if you take the half thats near your palaces and they take the other, these culture things make it hell to conquer civs now.

[Kev]

that wasn't entirely the point I was trying to make..

what i meant was if you find two A.I. in a war that is pretty far from where you are, go ahead and contact one of them and offer them an alliance against their opponent. They would usally give u a pretty good amount of gold per turn for your support.

Of course u would have to be sure that u would be able to defend yourself if something go wrong.. however, if u find the winning side and you want to denied them some gold.. contact them, offer alliance against their opponent and get the maximum amount of gold per turn, while at the same time not send a single troop to their aide.. They also usally keep giving u gold as long as they're still at war with each other.. I find it to be a good way to get some extra cash.

btw i'm very sleepy right now so i'm sorry if something doesn't make sense...