Avoid a War or avoid anything!
I love the game. Even the headaches – other than the terrible UI interactions and lack of information – are the kind of challenge I like. But there’s one challenge I can’t figure out a way past and honestly it’s kept me from even completing a game so far due to ragequit.
How do you keep AI civs from declaring war? And when one of them does, why do the rest jump you too? (Playing on sovereign difficulty so far.)
My best guess is that I’m way under-building military, which hits some sort of “vulnerability” trigger in the coding for the AI players, and I may just have to learn the right balance to maintain in a new game. (I’ve never been a domination player.)
But it doesn’t help that the AI forward-settles like a lunatic, which auto-creates negatives to the diplomatic relationships, and since all the AIs do it but even spending all my own influence to try to manage relationships I don’t have enough to stay positive.
I’m looking for advice, but I’m honestly not sure if this might be a bug.
I completely agree with your frustration regarding the AI seeming to enjoy forward settlements and then get angry at you for being too close.
But wars themselves are pretty easy to avoid.
Firstly you should make sure to build influence generating buildings and keep sending requests to the AI. Influence buildings themselves pay off really quickly because of the bonuses you get when the AI supports or accepts your request.
The other thing that I have noticed from my games is that the AI will only declare war on you if it thinks that it could win. In my last science victory game I had 5 of the 7 AI hostile for most of the game, but they never declared war. I suspect that is due to military size, but do not know this for certain.
The first thing you need to do is create diplomatic agreements, all available agreements should be up and running all the time and use them on the civs that like you. That will prevent them from all jumping in on you and if you have an alliance with a few of them they will help you. That done, you can focus on the 1-2 angry civs that want war and that makes it a lot easier.
And even the angry civs can be kept at bay with diplomacy, just gotta keep pumping up their attitude score towards you.
So, influence is important, you want as much of as you can, enough to keep up with the diplomacy and to veto requests from those civs that want bad relations.
In the end you will have to fight, but that’s a good thing. The AI is pretty easy and you can get a few cities from them as a thank you, as long as you isolate them as best as you can.
Know who is on your side and who isn’t.
Not everyone is your friend,
even if they claim to be.
One of the most important pieces of knowledge that you can have is who are your real friends and who aren’t. You really need to know who is on your side. Trusting someone who appears to be your friend, but isn’t, almost always leads to trouble.
Always make sure that you know who you are dealing with before you trust them with anything important. Many people are experts at pretending to be your friend. They have agendas that you will never know anything about, until you get blindsided by them.
You have to be very discerning when it comes to your friends. Never be too trusting, as the majority of people are not truly trustworthy. Trusting in false friends can do much more damage to you than your enemies ever will. Always be careful about who you trust.
“I want to set the record straight about a photo of Bodhi Sanders and me staging the shots. I went to visit Bohdi Sanders in Loveland, Colorado to discuss and finish my book called “Legacy” in September of 2015. I had many reasons in doing so.
First, he has several books on martial art philosophy that are best sellers and even a couple that hit #1 on Amazon. I wanted to meet the man that was going to publish my book one-on-one and make sure that he was a credible and legitimate martial artist, capable of understanding and keeping up with my presentation of martial arts. And he was exactly that.
We talked philosophy, about life and trained a lot. Talking the talk is not like walking the walk. After going through the mechanical and technical aspects of Escrima and some new techniques that we worked on, done by the numbers, which is normal when learning something new, he was able to be creative and fluid which precision, power, speed, and accuracy, which are the primary goals. In the last phases of creativity and fluidity, nothing is staged, it is where you want to be.
Traditionally, a hard stylist, Sanders was able to transition from one to the other and his flow was as good as any of the hundreds of top black belts that I’ve had the privilege to train and work out with. There are no delusions when it comes to his martial arts skills. There was no staging when it came to the tagging (sparring or fighting) and training we did. There is also no staging when your life is on the line and Sanders is a man that understands this.
During my time training with Sanders, his previous training was obvious to me. After training with him, I had no doubts about his rank or previous training. He has precision, power, speed, and accuracy. I could plainly see the muscle memory in his blocks, counters, and movements. I saw his 5th Dan certificate and it is legitimate. I saw the way he lives and he lives exactly what he teaches in his books. We trained every day we were together and his wife took both photos and videos of our training, and none of it was staged.” Sifu Al Dacascos
Excellence is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle
Do you want to be a man of honor, integrity and character? Then you have to act like a man of honor, integrity and character. Not just once and a while, not just when you are in a good mood, not just around people who you consider important, but all the time. In fact, don’t act like a man of honor, be a man of honor.
You have to get into the habit of living a life full of honor. It doesn’t just happen automatically. You have to practice it and work at it. Sometimes you have to just plain grit your teeth and do it despite your feelings, until the time when acting with honor and integrity becomes automatic.
Aristotle also tells us that excellence is an art form and that it is acquired by training and repetition. You do not do the right thing because you have virtue, but rather you have virtue because you do the right thing. Your actions and intentions form your character. Later, when your character has been formed and becomes a habit, it determines your actions.
The warrior must be careful to make his actions and intentions right. He has to make a habit out of this until he has perfected his character. Once he has begun to perfect his character, acts of honor and integrity come naturally, without conscious thought. When you get to this point, living a life of excellence will become your nature. Your actions determine who you become; and even further what you are. What do your actions say about you?
It is no easy thing for a principle
to become a man’s own unless
each day he maintains it and
works it out in his life. Epictetus
Developing your character takes work. It takes patience, dedication and perseverance. It is not an easy thing to do, at least not at first. There will constantly be temptations to step away from your principles. This is why the perfection of your character is a never-ending process. The opportunities to slide backwards are also never-ending; therefore the opportunities for new victories over yourself are endless.
Each day you have to work at maintaining your character. You have to work at developing your principles. It will become easier and easier as your principles become second nature to you, but you will still have temptations to compromise those principles, even once you have made them your own. Developing your character and living by a set of principles is not a goal, but an ongoing process. It takes work and discipline to resist the many temptations to compromise your standards.
You can liken this to the wise fish who never takes the bait. This fish has learned the strategies of the fishermen. He recognizes all the various baits and lures that he has been tempted with over the years.
Yet no matter how many times he resists the newest temptation that the fishermen cast into his pond, the next day he can be assured that he will be presented with another one. It only takes one bad decision for the wise old fish to end up in the frying pan, only one! Think about this.
You have to pick your battles wisely. Not every conflict is worth turning into a major battle. There are certain battles which simply cannot be won no matter how much effort you put into them or what strategies you use. They are simply losing causes and fighting such battles does little to help you accomplish your ultimate objectives. The wise man will not let his pride get in the way of obtaining his goals, and fighting a battle which cannot be won is a prime example of allowing your pride to cloud your thinking.
It is important to keep in mind that retreating from an individual battle does not mean that you are surrendering or declaring defeat in the war. A battle is no more than that – one battle. To continue with the battlefield/war analogy, a battle is simply one skirmish; your ultimate objective is to win the war. Many a pawn has to be sacrificed in a chess match in order to capture your opponent’s king, which is ultimately all that matters in the overall scheme of things.
Always keep your ultimate objective in mind. Don’t let your pride or anger interfere with your overall victory. I know that this is easier said than done at times, but it is a very important part of the game, and one that takes some self-discipline and practice to perfect. Have an overall plan for victory. Be willing to sacrifice a battle here and there in order to win the war in the end, and don’t expend energy fighting a battle which cannot be won at any cost. Be rational and deliberate.
Warriors aren’t born, and they aren’t made.
They create themselves
It takes a lot to live the warrior lifestyle. You will make mistakes and fall short at times as you work to perfect each area of your life. What is important is that you never quit working to improve yourself. Continually work to perfect your character. Hone your martial arts skills to a fine edge and then keep them sharp. Slow down and take time to keep your mind calm through meditation and study.
Confucius stated that he wasn’t born with the knowledge that he had; he worked hard to obtain it. In the same way, no one is born with all the traits of warriorhood. They have to be developed over time, through trial and error and hard work. Living the life of the warrior is a decision that one makes. Once the decision is made to walk the path of the warrior, then the real work begins. Making the decision to live the life of the warrior is only the first step in a long, endless process that will continue throughout your life.
Victories begin to be won as you conquer your shortcomings and overcome your mistakes. Each time you resist the temptation to lower your standards or to slack off in your training, you add another notch in your belt. You are constantly creating your character as you live the warrior lifestyle.
Men can be taught to fight, but they develop character through their own efforts. As Gichin Funakoshi stated, “The ultimate goal of karate is the perfection of character.” This is also the ultimate goal of the warrior lifestyle
Fathers are to sons what blacksmiths are to swords. It is the job of the blacksmith not only to make a sword, but also to maintain its edge of sharpness. It is the job of the father to keep his son sharp and save him from the dullness of foolishness. Steve Farrar
Parenting is about raising children to be mature, well-adjusted adults, not spoiled, entitled brats. Parents need to get their heads straight. They need to quit thinking that parenting is all about making sure that their kids are pampered and constantly having fun, and start taking their duty as a parent more seriously. If you are a parent, your job is to prepare your children to be well-adjusted, mature, responsible, self-reliant adults, period.
As a father, your job is to raise men, not boys. You have a sacred duty to teach your son the ways of the superior man and to teach him about character, honor, and integrity. Teach him about the duties of a man and help him become mature. Allow him to make his own mistakes and then help him learn important lessons from his mistakes, lessons that he will always remember and that will save him much heartache down the road.
Teach him the responsibilities of manhood and help him to understand his duties as a superior man. Help him develop his own code of honor that will serve him for his entire life. Don’t buy into this garbage about how boys need to be boys and that they have plenty of time to worry about responsibilities and duties when they are grown up. This attitude only creates spoiled, overgrown boys, not men
Warriors don’t work hard perfecting their martial arts skills because they love fighting. They don’t hurt, bleed, and sweat in order to brag about their skills. True warriors don’t train for glory or recognition. They train to protect those who cannot protect themselves – their family, the weak, the elderly, and those who deserve their protection.
The simple-minded pursue the warrior arts for immature, selfish reasons. They want recognition and people patting them on the back, telling them how great they are or how tough they are. They couldn’t care less about protecting others, only about themselves. In reality, they are weak. They need the constant praise of others to validate themselves because inside, they don’t know the way of the warrior.
The true warrior has found this path. He or she understands the difference between training to look tough and training to be tough. He knows how to be a weapon, a weapon that is not waved like a banner to get everyone’s attention, but rather a weapon that is always quietly there, ensuring the protection of those around him.
He trains because he has understood the value of the warrior lifestyle and he has made a decision to live his life as a warrior. He trains because that is who he is; he needs no recognition, no accolades, and no praise. His spirit and mind are at peace with exactly who he is and what he does. He is a true warrior – a man or woman that lives the way of the warrior.
