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Diplomatic Blundering: A Tale of Woe
Ah, the folly of war has caught many off guard. My current game is no exception. I am playing as the Romans and started with the Egyptians, Greeks, and English sharing my borders on a continent, with the Russians out on a large peninsula behind Egyptian territory. Later exploration would reveal that another continent to the west held the Americans to the north, the Aztecs to the south, and the Iroqouis sandwiched in the middle.
In an attempt to carve out an empire for myself, I launched my legions at Egypt very early and completely wiped them out... essentially doubling my territory. Following a rest a recuperation period to build up my newly conquered territory and to advance myself to another military advantage, I turned my attention to Greece. I massed Knights along our border and upon discovering Cavalry (beelined for it) I once again launched an unforgiving assault which eventually wiped the pansy Greeks off the map. At this point I was very happy with my situation, having a territory three times larger than any other civilization, with my largest competitor being the Aztecs across the ocean. I was now cruising along, having abandoned any desire for conquest for a while. The English looked like an irritating bulge on my nice red map and I had plans to eventually eliminate them when my factories began spewing out tanks, but that would be a long time in the future. I just wanted to sit back and develop peacefully for a while.
It is interesting to note that at this point there had been NO wars between the AI. The only two wars in history had both been started and fought by me. As you would expect, this would not continue. In fact, what was to follow was the result of probably the worst diplomatic blunder in Civ 3 history.
In the year 1380 an Aztec trireme disembarked two Cavalry units on my shore. Laughing to myself at the thought that they would even consider starting a war against me with these two troops, I ignored them. Just as you would expect, they attacked me the following turn. My riflemen killed one and forced the other to retreat, it was killed by a cavalry counterattack instantly at the beginning of the next turn. Since the Aztecs were across the ocean and I really didn't feel like shipping tons of cavalry across to beat their heads uselessly against cities which would very soon be defended by fortified infantry, I decided on a different course of action. I decided to have everyone else do my dirty work for me. I was perfectly secure on my continent, and would happily watch as my paid minions destroyed my only real competition. How silly I was.
After finishing off the pathetic, cowardly aztec cavalry unit, I went about setting my plan (and ultimate doom) in force. I paid the Iroquois off to form a military alliance with me and fight the Aztecs. I tried top do the same with the Americans, but they refused to declare war, so I agreed a Mutual Protection Pact which I thought would drag them in on my side pretty soon. The following turn, I figured... what the hell, I'll really make them pay... and paid the English and Russians to form alliances with me against the Aztecs as well. And so the war goes on for a couple turns with neither hide nor hair of the enemy to be seen.
All of a sudden, I get a message that the Americans had declared war on the Russians. Finding this very curiously strange, I checked the diplomacy screen to find (to my horror) that the Americans had agreed a Mutual Protection Pact with the Aztecs the very same turn that they had allied with me. I was allied to the allies of my enemy.
The following events were almost comedic. The Aztecs attacked the Iroquois on their borders as I expected. The Iroquois counterattack activated the American-Aztec MPP and the Americans declared war on the Iroqouis. Next turn a Russian ship attacked an American ship, forcing me to declare war on the Russians as a result of my MPP with the Americans. In addition, the Iroqouis attacked an American unit, forcing me to declare war on the Iroqouis. After that, the Russians formed an alliance with the English against me, but that was non-consequential because I would've had to declare war against the English eventually anyway because of the Aztec-American-Me pact system. To top it all off, the Aztecs landed another trireme of cavalry on my coast. Since I really didn't feel like allowing them to run around my territory at will, I killed them with my own cavalry. This activated the Aztec-American Pact and the Americans declared war on me. In the space of about 5-6 turns I went from at peace with the world to at war with everyone. All because of two stupid cavalry units and some immense idiocy on my part.
To penalize myself for this blunder, I'm just going to fight the war instead of reloading. Everyone has infantry now, so it's going to be tough going... massed artillery and cavalry are the only options available. I think I can hold the Russians at our border and wipe out the English to my rear, but it will divert a lot of production away from much needed city improvements. In addition, the Iroqouis are being slaughtered by the combined forced of the Aztecs and the Americans. At the end of all this, the Aztecs will be stronger and will have a firm alliance with the Americans who will no longer be friendly with me. I think I pulled a George W.
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