Question about Alliances

from GalCiv2 Forums

Are alliances only defensive, and not offensive?

In my current game, there doesn't seem to be any negative diplomatic penalty for not honoring alliances; and I can usually create the same alliance again soon after I broke it by not honoring the call. What's the benefit of honoring an alliance?

If a civ won't ally with you (even if you have "close" relations), what else can you do or is it impossible?

What happens if someone declares war on me who has an alliance with someone who I also have an alliance with?

Thanks in advance 

off-topic
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You can sometimes bribe an ally into attacking another civ, but there is no Alliance-specific way to be an aggressor.

I'm still confused about how and when you can take diplo hits from broken alliances, but then the whole + and - stuff on the Relations tab is fundamentally fuzzy to me. The only thing I'm fairly sure of is that the pluses and minuses don't all have equal weights. One 'benefit' of honoring an alliance is that you can get into a war without having started it.

If a Close civ won't ally with you, my guess is that they don't have the Alliances tech. You can give it to a civ and form an alliance in the same transaction.

Re being attacked by an ally's ally, I'm curious also. My guess is that your ally will just ignore the attack. My least favorite part of the alliance structure is that you cannot explicitly invoke your alliance even for defense. The only thing you can do is break it, which hurts your reputation.

Edit: landisaurus' reply made me notice that this was an Off-Topic thread. My reply above was based on the assumption that the OP was asking about GalCiv2.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

yeah, you need to tell the context.   Real life is different from a video game.  Alliances are totally offensive, nothing kicks another guy's ass like a joint attack.   That being said, its hard to program that kind of coordination in AI to work with humans, so it usually doesn't happen.

Usually, it means that the alliance member becomes a neutral party.    I could imagine mechanically for a game, perhaps it would break both alliances.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

My apologies; I meant to post in a GC2 thread (not off-topic).

You mentioned that one advantage of alliances is that you can enter a war without having started it.

What are the advantages of entering a war without having started it? Thanks in advance

also: If a powerful enemy has powerful allies, I suppose that honoring an alliance could be the only way to fight the powerful enemy without also having to fight his allies at the same time. When you honor an alliance isn't it just against a single race, and not it's allies?

 

 

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

If one of your allies attacks another ally, you remain neutral in the conflict, and both alliances are preserved. I've used this several times to remove pesky allies from minable resources that I could put to better use *_*

also: If a powerful enemy has powerful allies, I suppose that honoring an alliance could be the only way to fight the powerful enemy without also having to fight his allies at the same time. When you honor an alliance isn't it just against a single race, and not it's allies?
End of quote

Quite the opposite. Wars between two alliances will almost invariably involve everyone on the map. When you join in a war to defend an ally, the game considers that the same as if you'd declared war on the people who attacked your ally; all their friends pile on you for attacking their ally. Be careful of the Altarians, they're almost as dangerous as a full alliance due to their super ability.

If you absolutely MUST attack a pack of allies, the best thing to do is to break your own alliances first. Then use the transport parking trick to get one of the allies to declare war on you. Use this to pick them off one at a time, rather than having your alliance members start the chain reaction that brings everyone on both sides into the war.

 

 

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

When you join in a war to defend an ally, the game considers that the same as if you'd declared war on the people who attacked your ally; all their friends pile on you for attacking their ally.
End of quote

Are you sure it's that simple? It was many, many versions ago, but in my last long stretch of tries at alliance wins, I could swear I saw a lot of variety in how and when wars spread around a thick alliance net, and it did not look like my honoring an alliance gave my relations the same bad hit that starting a war did. The diplomacy stuff still seems to have perhaps the largest 'black box' aspect of any part of the game.

(This is a humble question; I'm a bit sloppy when I'm playing, and I don't keep notes.)

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Not entirely sure, but pretty much so. AI alliances are rare enough I don't have all that many examples. Usually it goes something like this:

Group 1: Altarians, Drath, Torians; Altarians allied with Torians and Drath, Drath and Torians NOT allied

Group 2: Korath, Yor, Me; same as above, with me in the Altarians slot

War starts when Drath pay the Torians to attack the Yor. I join the Korath in declaring war on the Torians; the Altarians declare war on both of us. Then the Yor declare war on the Altarians for declaring on us; this prompts the Drath to declare on the Yor, which causes the Korath and I to respond. The end result is all three members of my alliance at war with all three members of the other one.

It only takes a few times of that happening to learn to unally yourself before starting wars - especially when you're in a position where eveyone has to go through your territory to attack your allies >:(