Why in the name of ALLAH and His Prophet (pbuh) does everyone declare war on me 100 turns in?

[Heinz Guderian]

100 to 120 turns in (i'm not sure about 150BC). I'm a turtler. I like to turtle. I'm a polite boy. Dont trespass or declare Jihad against anyone unless they Jihad me first. Just managed to get 2 provinces (about 6 regions in my case Macedonia and Hellas -playing with Athens). Trading and have pretty good relations with everyone. All of a sudden EVERYONE declares war against me. And i mean everyone:



I can understand Macedonia wants Pella back. But also Macedonia's friends. And their friends. And their trading partners. And their trading partners tennis partners. Then Rome, and her friends. Then Seleucids with her eastern homies. But wtf did i do to the Spaniards or North Africans? Some little town in Northwestern Spain, on the coast of the harsh Atlantic just discovers me, and next turn: "Yo Athens, we are declaring war".

And these ****ers really meant it too. Ten turns later i have a stack of 20 weird looking guys landing by Sparta. I'm thinking: i've never seen those units before who are they? Its the very same Basques who want a piece. They sailed a thousand miles to bring the pain. You know what? I respect that. I didnt like killing them because they went balls out to make their war declaration count, but what can you do? I also had a massive African invasion from Massiliya (who for a hundred years were great friends and trading partners who all of a sudden wanted to bounce me), like 4 full stacks of African nobles and spears. They hung around for so long 10% of the Hellas became African according to the settlement screen.

But am i the only that is experiencing this? 3 campaigns now ruined because i am getting gang banged (and not the good kind) 100 turns in. Is this inevitable?

[GnaReffotsirk]

Check your military strength. If it falls to a certain ratio vs an AI, that faction will declare war. Especially if they like or in contact with another AI who hates you. The AI is like a gang who would gladly pounce on the player when they are able.

It also happens to me at 100+ turns. It could also be due to cultural influence spreading all over and making AI liking each other then ganging up against the player.

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

I am sorry Heinz.

[Humble Warrior]

I have an admission to make... I`m very much like this guy. In fact, it should be my avatar. i`m much calmer now though... except concerning steam.


"Everyone should hate Steam."

"Everyone?"


"EVERYONE!!!"

Ahem. Now what was the question?

Is this inevitable?

Diplomacy is your friend. Get some Allies early on.

[Heinz Guderian]

Check your military strength. If it falls to a certain ratio vs an AI, that faction will declare war. Especially if they like or in contact with another AI who hates you. The AI is like a gang who would gladly pounce on the player when they are able.

It also happens to me at 100+ turns. It could also be due to cultural influence spreading all over and making AI liking each other then ganging up against the player.

Thats a good idea. How do i check my military strength against a potential foe? But i hardly have enough money to support one full stack never mind 3 or 4. Even though i had 2 complete provinces, the major thing i was worried about was trying to feed the people with farm/livestock upgrades.

I am sorry Heinz.

Parthia became independent in 155 BC. Parthia declared war on me in 154 BC.

Diplomacy is your friend. Get some Allies early on.

well i did have allies (backstabbing bastards), but i'll give you one example. Rhodes. 100 year plus trading partner. Non aggresion pact. We fell further in love and became defensive allies. Things got really srs and we became full allies. Then Allah forsook me and everyone jihaded me. Rhodes, Allah bless them fought with me. Then it got taken out by Sardes. It's one army now with that big red skull above it was loosing men fast to attrition due to it not having a home region. I despatch my best navy, The Aegean Fleet, veterans of countless battles lead by my best admiral. They will take Rhodes back (and hopefully allow me to "liberate" the province). As i approach Rhodes, i notice its garrison is depleted due to just being conquered. Next turn i will be able to attack and take it back. Piece of cake. Press end turn.

*TRUMPET SOUND. "Rhodes has declared war on you" and that depleted army runs and bashes his head on Athens.




Also: does anyone know how i "liberate" a country? What i need/what are the requirements/is it working?

[GnaReffotsirk]

Thats a good idea. How do i check my military strength against a potential foe? But i hardly have enough money to support one full stack never mind 3 or 4. Even though i had 2 complete provinces, the major thing i was worried about was trying to feed the people with farm/livestock upgrades.

At the upper left corner in the diplomacy ui, there's a bar that tells your strength over a selected AI. Yellow means your power, red is the AI's. If this bar goes beyond 60, they offer non-aggression pacts. If you have luxury goods (check town centers for things like olives, iron, etc) they like, they will offer trade agreements.

Cultural aversion plays a huge role in diplomacy. How to battle against this is beyond me atm. I tried throwing money at the AI, but even at very friendly terms, they just won't accept non-aggression due to their military power. Trade it seems does have something to do with economic strength.

Try to focus on industry on provinces that have bonus to industry, agriculture on agriculture, etc. Research economic stuff. I think having at least 2 provinces at turn 60 is good. Also, higher tax rates tend to lower income per turn. Lower or middle tax rates is good. High tax rates for one or two turns then back to normal or low is something that helped me out.

Also, when you battle and defeat an army, try to enslave rather than release or kill. Releasing and killing the captives impacts other factions one way or the other.

This seems to me as something that has worked so far, but I'm not sure if this is exactly what is happening. Trying things out to gain cultural and economic victory atm.

[Humble Warrior]

Also: does anyone know how i "liberate" a country? What i need/what are the requirements/is it working?

Never happened for me.

[AusHaching]

[QUOTE=Also: does anyone know how i "liberate" a country? What i need/what are the requirements/is it working?[/QUOTE]

Step 1: Wait until all armies and fleets of your allies are dead and you get the "faction destroyed" message.
Step 2: Conquer the starting settlement of your ally (i.e. the capital at the beginning of the campaign).
Step 3: After winning the siege battle, choose "liberate".
Step 4:?
Step 5: Profit!

Do not liberate the settlement if they still have fleets or armies. You will not be able to gift the settlement to your former allies and you will instead be at war with them.

[Langer Kerl]

Step 1: Wait until all armies and fleets of your allies are dead and you get the "faction destroyed" message.
Step 2: Conquer the starting settlement of your ally (i.e. the capital at the beginning of the campaign).
Step 3: After winning the siege battle, choose "liberate".
Step 4:?
Step 5: Profit!

Do not liberate the settlement if they still have fleets or armies. You will not be able to gift the settlement to your former allies and you will instead be at war with them.

Whats the capital of Egypt? They were my allies, got wiped out (I even got the related message), so I sailed to Egypt and conquered Alexandria to see if I could liberate them. However there was no such option. I had to wait for the province to rebel and let the Egyptian rebels take Alexandria back from me to see the faction of Egypt reborn.

[AusHaching]

Whats the capital of Egypt? They were my allies, got wiped out (I even got the related message), so I sailed to Egypt and conquered Alexandria to see if I could liberate them. However there was no such option. I had to wait for the province to rebel and let the Egyptian rebels take Alexandria back from me to see the faction of Egypt reborn.

Erst mal schönen Gruß nach Hessen!

For our international readers: Never tried liberating a faction with multiple starting regions. I think there is a little star next to the region´s name to indicate the capital. However, it seems to possible that factions can respawn in other starting settlements as well. Carthage got ressurected on one of the islands they start with. Probably all starting regions are possible for respawn.

[Spaxspore]

its funny, usually no one declares war on me hard/vHard (carthage, rome, greek states) after turn 50 or so. Unless you play as egypt... everyone jumps on you.

[Downtown1]

That can't be intentional can it? That seems like a bug that your ally, rather than helping you get his city back, just turns his back and declares war on you.. especially with attrition.

[Heinz Guderian]

I mean srsly, even my most trusted and loving ally Rhodes ups and declares war on me just to send me a final **** YOU before it dies of attrition. Thats how much the world hates my guts. It didnt need to do that. That hurt the most.

[karamazovmm]

its a probable case of weakness.

You don't have much territory, you also don't have much of an army. Unfortunately this game primes for early expansion, generally your initial troops are enough for that, raise some more and have 2 full stacks of complete crap units, thats going to work. I haven't played with athens yet, but I take your best bet is to go on a rampage in hellas and macedon, get those 2, move to illyria and kill macedon in thracia. 4 provinces and all the blue research that you were making instead of the red ones, should net you know 5-7k per turn with those 2 crappy armies, I generally stop researching blue and go all out for red, since I have now lvl 3 libraries, Im crunching those upgrades at 200%+ of speed

basically at the start of the game its not worth it to actually raise a decent army, they don't have one, you don't have one, but you are better in tactics than the AI. Ah one thing I did differently on this egypt campaign was to research and recruit fast ballistas, I have 4-5 in all my armies now, simply because all the armies there had around 6-8 units of slingers, ballistas = 4-5 units routing before contact

[The Despondent Mind]

There is absolutely no valid excuse in sense that it's a working game play feature for all AI factions to attack the Human all at once .

[karamazovmm]

as egypt I had around turn 5 onwards everyone that I knew except macedon, athens, sparta and my ally, declare war on me. that was on normal.

however its around turn 100 when the ai starts to have the economy and power that we had on turn 20-50, so it actually makes somewhat sense. I haven't had that in all the other campaigns, a neighbouring more powerful empire would declare war on me, but not as that egypt campaign

[yutterh]

Sounds like a game ruiner to me. Also it isn't right that everyone decides to fight you for no reason.

[M2TWRocks]

In my longest campaign up to turn 150 or so, this has not happened to me. I'm playing on normal as Epirus. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I never use slaves, always release prisoners, rarely break treaties, and trade and keep the peace with the factions I am not actively trying to conquer. I started off the campaign at war with Rome, Macedon, Sparta, Athens, and Syracuse and defeated them all.

[Heinz Guderian]

I blame Egypt. I was too nice to them, giving them money and shiz.

[karamazovmm]

I blame Egypt. I was too nice to them, giving them money and shiz.

I blame athens, those piss poor money counter that don't even know squared equations!