Strazdas said:
i play variuos leaders so their motivations vary, or rather i can get excuses for offence, but yeah playing ghandi its a race for teritory rather than war for territory if were roleplaying. i too feel bad about taking out civilizations without cause for some reason, even if i am in total control and there will be no reprecussion because everyones afraid of me. it just feels wrong.
I always crush every single civilization sooner or later after they've attacked me, especially when it was during the early stages of my empire (when I typically have virtually no army and only 2-3 cities). I play a quite vengeful Ghandi, I don't go to war if they didn't attack me first (unless it's the endgame and no one has the balls to attack me anymore, at that point I only take out civs who are constantly being a pain in every single way... and have some precious resources like Uranium in their territory ^^). To be fair, it's like roleplaying America, the thought of which kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth sometimes >.<
(Seriously though, waging war through superior technology, most of the work done by stealth bombers, going to war out for revenge or resources, cutting education funding in late game to fund my ever-growing army, manipulating the World Congress to spread my religion, ideology while enforcing trade embargoes on civilizations that are unfriendly... I'm literally playing America here, much as I hate to admit x.x )
I have a sort of roleplayed myth related to my civilization - I will only wage war (offensively) once a Khan has been given to me by a City State. To my Civ, each Khan signifies a time to wage war against a civilization that has wronged me, a time to settle old debts. Older Khans who've fought and finished their wars are relegated to defending the civilization only, staying in the fringe cities of my empire (typically, inside the cities of an empire taken over by that Khan) and being ready if an invasion comes my way.
Strazdas said:
As far as AI attacking, i noticed it feels its ok to attack if it thinks your equal or less than it, if your stronger its going to stay away. it also considers "Friends" as "i can throw him into war to have some extra cannon fodder" so it usually overestimates its power. i did once have attacked a small nation and got whole world on my back for that. that was a challenge.
The most beautiful moment for me in the Civ series was in Civilization III. I was based in North America if I remember correctly and have already taken over both the American continents. A war was brewing in Australia, but I got sick of holding back all my ICBMs (having over a 100) and doing nothing with them (seriously though, I rarely use nuclear missiles). My navy was ready and I had a good supply of both naval troops and a transport line leading all the way to Australia (in Civ 3, you could use a number of transports to move a maximum amount of troops per transport within a single turn anywhere you wanted by loading/unloading them sequentially). Problem was, everyone knows when you launch a single nuclear missile, it pretty much gets all the nations to declare war on you instantly. So I hatched the most evil plan I've ever executed in a game. I started what was pretty much World War III.
I forged a geographically perfect alliance. The French and English had large territories basically splitting the Asia in two, with the Brits controlling the western region. I formed a Mutual Defense Pact with the English, the French territory being a closer shot from Australia, making it easy for my troops to move in once they were done with the Iroquois there. The Dutch controlled almost all of Europe (and were the second most powerful civilization after me), which was perfect, because they would be enough of a distraction for the English not to take too much of the French territory before I was done in Australia. A few ICBMs aimed at their most productive cities would cripple them enough not to give the English too much trouble. There were a few more civilizations in play, but they were all pitted against each other in a similar manner through Mutual Defense Pacts.
When I launched the first missile, the ensuing chaos would have made the devil himself proud. Every single civilization was pitted against each other at once in an all out war, while none could even remotely get in my way because of the threats much closer to home thanks to the Mutual Protection Pacts. By the time my campaign in Australia had finished, the Netherlands was a nuclear wasteland on one end and a battleground with the English on the other. The French lost a third of their territory to the English and my troops were marching ever closer, quickly taking over key cities like Paris for the few Wonders I did not control. The smaller civilizations perished in that war, taken over by the juggernauts right next to them and by the time the Pacts expired and civilizations started declaring war on me, their armies were nearly non-existent, lost in the infighting.
It was... glorious *evil grin*
