What Makes the AI start war?

playing an MPC with my friend, all the major nations have declared war on me by turn 60, and he isn't at war with anyone. why? i mean nations that are friendly all the sudden declaring war out of the blue, even breaking alliance with me in some cases to do so? what are the triggers for war and how imporant is each? i know someone somewhere as delt with this issue comprehensively, so if someone could just link me to that post i'd appreciate it.

Well its all pretty complex really.

First of all one must take account of the games B(eleifs)D(esires)I(ntentions) system.

This is essentially the underlay of everything the cai does. It has preprogramed values to make the game go in a roughly historic way and also evolves depending on the situation within the campaign. As well as this there is also a 1% randomisation factor i believe.

So dependant on your nation it may well be inevitable that the ai starts a war with you as in has the I(ntention) to do so the D(esire) for a specific region.

As well as this the ai nations own alliances and enemies can have an affect, if a nation is at war with you it is likely its allies will follow due to the way diplomacy is run. Being an ally of your allies enemies incurs a negative bonus for both parties making war more likely.

Finaly your ally may have bribed the ai into breaking agreements with you (it is possible) so as to set europe against you.

would taking denmark be the trigger for war?

If someone else wants it or they think you having Denmark makes you too strong.

well in 2 campaigns i have seen copenhagen fall and then the other player ended up at war with all the major nations. one campaign it happened immediately the other campaign it happened over 30 turns, but it happened in both. each time the player had only started war with denmark alone (and its ally mecklenburg)

so if you start to become too powerful the AI wants to attack you? what are some of the ways the AI measure's your strength?

Well i recently started a vh/vh campaign with sweden and within 10 turns i'm at war with every single major faction and half the minor factions in the game. Napoleon and blucher were marching with full stacks to stockholm..and they didn't even fight despite meeting halfway and sharing the same path (through denmark). I guess they hate me more than each other..and the brits just landed a full stack at norway.

The worse thing is, the only action i did to spark this "world war" is declaring war on denmark. Everybody loves Carlsberg eh?

It's funny cause it seems like every time I play as a nation "friendly" towards France, they(France) end up being so passive. In my current Irish campaign( I decided to pretty much turtle for a while) they have been all but conquered along with Spain, as Austria and Russia have swallowed up most of continental Europe. It's 1815 and France and Spain now cling to existence in Corsica and Palma respectively.

Originally Posted by ellokawan

Well i recently started a vh/vh campaign with sweden and within 10 turns i'm at war with every single major faction and half the minor factions in the game. Napoleon and blucher were marching with full stacks to stockholm..and they didn't even fight despite meeting halfway and sharing the same path (through denmark). I guess they hate me more than each other..and the brits just landed a full stack at norway.

The worse thing is, the only action i did to spark this "world war" is declaring war on denmark. Everybody loves Carlsberg eh?

this has also been my experience.

The AI starts war for several reasons:
Firstly, they may believe that you are becoming too powerful, have too many provinces. The best way to counter this is to make all the regions that can be liberated into their respective nations, and then proceed to give one or two regions to these protectorates. This maintains the balance of power, which is what the AI wants, and it means you have regions contributing to your victory conditions, while not paying for their upkeep.

The AI may attack because they think you will attack, specially if you have armies on their borders, or towns with large garrisons in the borders.

Also, in NTW, you have to take into account the history of relations between two nations. I suggest you read up on this. If you, for example, are GB, and you try to get peace with Spain, 9/10 it will fail. Although GB and Spain in this period did ally, in 1808, they started the war as enemies, and they had been for about 400 years.

Hoped this helped

The only thing worse than a battle lost, is a battle won- Duke of Wellington

well, does the AI like to keep a certain number of nations at war with you at minimum? like for as long as I can remember, if you are well into the campaign and you sign peace with one nation or destroy one nation you are fighting, the very next turn a new nation will declare war with you. it happens too often to be coincidence?

also will the Ai opportunistically decalre war if they see your capital or other major city is undefended? i suspect they do, and they don't seem to care if i have 3 full stacks the next provence over, if my capital is left unguarded for even 1 turn they will jump into war.

The AI will keep making war until their BDI has been achieved. So if that means keeping nations at war with you, they will do it.

I'm not sure about your second point, but I suspect you are right, capturing a capital is an easy end to a war.