It seems that an ally is always willing to give a gift after an exchange of science.

Ultimately, I'm wondering if there is some ally management trick that might help my OCC game in the late years....like after I have space flight

If they get in a fight, I have to declare war too but all I really do is periodically provide units - they get pissed though if all you provide is obsolete stuff.

Wow, I rarely give allies units. Of course, I rarely offer gifts unless they make reasonable demands. Does this improve their attitude towards you?

Concerning obsolete units, when you offer the unit, do they actually reply with hostility? Or is it something you've noticed in the reputation stats? Truely curious. I love to see new dialog boxes and I thought I'd seen everything!

Yeah, I don't have a problem with going to war against an non-allied AI when an ally requests help. It's when the Ally requests help against another AI that I'm allied with that gives me trouble. Of course, maybe you only ally with one other AI (no neighbors.) This would make sense.

BTW, in OCC games, I use those obsolete units to rushbuy new units or city improvements by disbanding through the city box. But I like your idea of giving them to the allies

In my last game, my ally started demanding lots and lots of gold. I declined. Next thing I knew...really...within the turn...I was at war with them. First time I went from allied to war within a turn. I won the game with my best AC year (1963.) Moral of the story for me is develope science fast before the other civs can affectively attack--maybe this is Paul's or Smash's or Sten's idea-- it worked well.

I will also give them growth techs like Construction or Sanitation and peaceful government techs like Rep or Demo (after SoL) with one primary purpose - make my trade bonuses bigger.

perhaps i should be nice to the ai but everytime i am and then request a gift.. they just tell me i am greedy and break the alliance.

Either that or i have to come to my allies defense as he decides that with my backing of him he can piss everyone else off and bring me into wars and breaking other treaties i have.

Concerning the Sten's first point, map trading: I've heard that it makes the ally happy, but they usually break off discussion with a 'tete for tete' goodbye. So I don't get to request a gift--I need that 'rush' money--but I'll experiment.

The second point about giving Construction and Sanitation away brings a smug look to my 'Joe camel' face! I love that kind of thinkin'.

Concerning giving away gunpowder and conscription to waring allies, you Greek dog! Beware of SF-townies bearing gifts. If I ever take up multiplayer, I'll remember the name of Sten Sture.

Hey Genghis, have you tried OCC yet? I just won in 1954--can't break the 1900 barrier yet though.

I bet War4 is upset that he is north of you and has to deal with temperatures in 40s!

BlackJack - when you say you don't ally with any civ next to you, is this in the OCC game? And if so, what do you do with the civs that are close to you?

I lost a game couple days ago...I was so close to winning. It was actually a thrilling defeat. I made one reconnaisance error. The enemy had a ton of howitzers and bombers and fighters and copters, but I had three fortified bombers over fortressed alpine vets in mountains. In my city, I had a vet Aegis. My steath fighers were doing some recouperation. So one turn I didn't recon' and a limping, little AI helicopter snuck in from the tundra and killed a piece of freight that kept the enemy spys at bay. So the enemy got Plastics and Superconductor in one turn and completed their 6.9 ship (39 structures without fusion) in time to land 2 years my 15.9 ship. I actually love it when the AI does something sneaky! OCC demands alot of 'micromanaging' as someone says. Do you have all four OCC wonders? Even this doesn't mean you win, but I haven't won without them.

Aurelius.

What is Micro managment? I know what it means but what do you do? what is the prcess?

OF course we are warmongers.... havent' you seen us play hockey

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They call me Mr. Fierce