How to provoke a neighbor to attack you?

acantoni · Post by **acantoni** » May 16 2005

Greetings all!!!

I've been playing the demo intensely and.. what a game!!!
Yes i know there are some bugs (major one aswell), ai doesn't work well enough , diplomacy almost broken and so on but the potential for the greatest strategy game is here.

I'll go straight to the point...
I've played all missions :

In the Europe one no matter what you do (or you don't) ai will attack you shortly , if you get involved in a war (i was paris against marseille) almost certainly barcelona and madrid will attack you aswell.
My usual approach (Paris here) is to attack and conquer marseille right away and then deal with the others... it's by far the easiest scenario i've played yet (playing as paris)

In the NW scenario i tried a different approach.
Iwas washington, i tried a completely 'friendly' approach with defcon 4 , no unit whatsoever near the borders , no military unit built at all (though iÃ¬'ve built a few military facility) and some troops in reserves (let's say around 40 deployed)
Result : After 1 year and an half a neighbour mounted a surprise attack will all his forces and he totally crushed me.
I've asked for help to all others players but no one came to my aid and as far as i know no one declared war on the invading force (i bet if i did the same they'll all join forces against me...) and absolutely no help whatsover from WM
In the end i've lost the war

In the other american scenario i was Houston .
This time a balanced strategy, i've bult new units i've around 60 deployed at all time , defcon 4 , and i'm constantly building new units , radan stations, missile silos, ecc
For the first time ever i received a diplomatic offer (new mexico offered alliance with me and i accepted)

So far (1 year) no one dared to attack me.
However the problem is if i try to attack anyone at all all my neighboars will attack me in a matter of a few days.

Here is my question :

Is there a way to 'provoke' a neigbor so you can attack him withour problems (increase belli bar.)
Or again trick an enemy to attack you in the first place ?
Please don't you tell me the strategy to attack the one with highest belli rating and hope the one i wanted to join up will attack me aswell.
He will but i don't want to play an all-out war against everybody !

Thanks!!
Fabio

RCBricker · Post by **RCBricker** » May 16 2005

Well good job on the diplo offer.

As for getting them to attack you? not sure. My question to you would be how is your DAR compared to theirs? If you are trying for unification you can win without going to war. If the scenario is not unification then just sit back and wait. Some one will attack some one eventually.

Post by **BattleGoat** » May 16 2005

To address this we will be redesigning "Ops" towards clandestine manipulation of the Belli Bars between the various regions on the map.

CptBritish · Post by **CptBritish** » May 16 2005

You think its bad play Portugal on France Scenario Nobody wants any beef with Portugal damn it....

I think fighting in this is surprisingly easy I captured about 2,300 Square Miles of Madrid no problems. Then Barcelona attacked me :( Bastards had to start again (Btw i'm on my 7th try as portugal

)

Draken · Post by **Draken** » May 16 2005

To address this we will be redesigning "Ops" towards clandestine manipulation of the Belli Bars between the various regions on the map.

That's good news!!! Maybe region A can do a covert ops against B but framing C

Cauldyth · Post by **Cauldyth** » May 16 2005

Sounds promising.

It would be nice to have some way of "manufacturing an incident" to justify a war. I'm playing as the West Coast in the Canada scenario, so the only neighbour I have is the Prairies. My belli bar is at 0 with them, so any attack on my part is disastrous. It kind of leaves me deadlocked.

I can declare war against Ontario with slightly less repercussions, and that did get the Prairies to declare war on me in turn, but I doubt the West Coast could stand up to the financial resources of the Prairies combined with the advanced (by scenario standards) military tech of Ontario. I haven't had the guts to try yet though.

I suppose I could try and get Quebec involved, to keep Ontario busy, but so far it's been a little daunting trying to figure out how to break the "Peace Deadlock" in a way that doesn't result in my utter destruction.

Fantastic game though! Imagine that, a game where you have to think about what you're doing!

-Cauldyth

Legend · Post by **Legend** » May 16 2005

In the Canada map, do not forget the NW passage... if you want to declare war you could take boats around and unload onto and attack the prairies region. This happened to me in one test game, I was left unaware... It's more gratifying doing this in a multiplayer game. You should see the panic I was in when the West Coast landed and started to invade!

3iff · Post by **3iff** » May 17 2005

Where is this belli bar???

Post by **Balthagor** » May 17 2005

Go to diplomacy, it is next to the region name, first panel.

3iff · Post by **3iff** » May 17 2005

I think I saw that but there was no mouseover tip. I have Paris listed and the bar is about 30% full where the others are around 0-5% full.

Does a more full bar indicate more cause to attack?
What is a reasonable level to reach before declaring war, assuming I'm trying to avoid the disapproval of neighbours and the WM?

Post by **Balthagor** » May 17 2005

yes, that is it. Check the Sticky thread here about key diplomacy factors, it will give you a better idea of what level you're looking for.

acantoni · Post by **acantoni** » May 17 2005

''To address this we will be redesigning "Ops" towards clandestine manipulation of the Belli Bars between the various regions on the map.''

Wow !! can't wait to see this one

Keep up the good work!