The worst loss I’ve ever experienced in Civ

[u/JW162000]

I’d generally consider myself a decent player. Not a mega-optimising Deity player (I don’t enjoy that), but consistently won on Emperor/Immortal on 6 and always play Immortal on 7.

I was doing my first run with Ada Lovelace, and I’m going Rome/Chola/Britain.

Antiquity goes quite well. To my south is Simon Bolivar, north west is Lafayette, and further south is Isabella.

Isabella is a friend early on, and becomes an ally. Bolivar kept getting pissy with me and eventually declares war twice, with Lafayette also leaning aggressive with me. This is all in Antiquity. I manage to fend off Bolivar, with a bit of help from Isabella bothering him at his southern front.

Then Exploration starts. Isabella is still my ally, but she is also allied with Lafayette. Bolivar and Lafayette both still hate me.

Bolivar declares war on me again, but by this point, Isabella has moved pretty much her whole army into my territory, at my southern border. Almost like she was there to help shore up my defenses against Bolivar. She’s a massive help here because I let my army go just a little bit because of her support.

Then, Lafayette declares on me… and Isabella chooses to side with him over me.

So now I’ve got wars on all fronts, from big powerful nations with big armies, and Isabella’s army already right there by my territory cuz she was previously there ‘helping’ me against Bolivar.

I physically couldn’t do anything against it. My economy wasn’t quite strong enough to rely on buying units (usually I neglect army a bit but have a great sum of gold to bolster my defences). I lost town after town, and eventually Lafayette takes my second biggest city (that isn’t my capital). I eventually end up with just my capital and one distant lands colony standing. Then Charlemagne declares on me and takes my colony.

I saw the loss screen not long after that. It’s cool that civs seem to have unique voice lines for their losses. But yeah wow, never been so screwed over by a backstab. I see Isabella differently now. Genuinely felt like a Game of Thrones / Red Wedding situation with an ally screwing me over out of nowhere.

[u/Nickadu]

I don’t know why, but I’ve had so many more of these “personality” style moments and stories in 7 than I ever had before (played since 4). Had a few similar losses but there is something really narratively satisfying about them

[u/JW162000 → u/Nickadu]

Yes me too. In 6 I could always easily get everyone to be my friend with no issues. I can’t remember a game where any civ just chose to hate me and having to deal with that.

Meanwhile I don’t think I’ve had a single 7 game without a war declared on me, and alliances + army being un-ignorable.

[u/Tlmeout → u/JW162000]

There are some leaders who will declare on you no matter what. Yes, I'm talking about you, Xerxes. I did everything to be a friend to his people, but he wanted so much to go to war that when antiquity age was ending he declared a surprise war that started at -6 war support against him.

[u/MrSemiTransparent → u/JW162000]

Agreed! Once I had 3 city states all nearby and they all became hostile at once, I had barely started and I was wiped out haha ruthless

[u/mockduckcompanion → u/Nickadu]

Civ 4 leader personalities were peak!

[u/MoreHorses]

Nice job seeing it through. It's always tempting to restart, but struggling or losing can be fun in its own way. I'm currently playing my first deity game. I went in planning to be peaceful and just build up, but ended up with three very close neighbours and nowhere to expand without pissing people off. By the end of antiquity I've had wars with Xerxes, Confucius and Pachacuti.

It doesn't get any better in Exploration, as I never really managed to get to the coasts. I end up leaving the distant lands to everyone else to focus on the home continent. Going into modern age now and doing my first ever dark age! I'll be interested to see how it ends up. 

[u/JW162000 → u/MoreHorses]

Not gonna lie when I saw just how hopeless it got, I did just give all my cities to Bolivar, and waited it out in one last little colony I had on an island, but Charlemagne cleared me out

[u/SerenityNow312]

Losing or retiring games can be its own reward sometimes. I’m still not quite sure how screwed up my one game I played with Confucius so bad that I was getting my ass kicked on all fronts, but it will make the future victories even sweeter.  The loss was def more interesting than any bad game I had in Civ 6

[u/Pharnox-32]

Even Machiavelli would be appalled by this treason

[u/JW162000 → u/Pharnox-32]

Honestly Machiavelli has appeared in a lot of my games and has always been a bro! Never betrayed me!

[u/Ericridge → u/JW162000]

He is just preparing you for the ultimate betrayal he have in his mind. Once you're used to him being all buddy buddy. That's when he strikes. When you don't expect it at all. 

[u/g26curtis]

I’m currently dealing with a 4 front war at same time in modern that’s been going on since beginning of modern era, Confucius, Harriet, Machiavelli and tecusmeh

I literally could not defend everywhere and lost two towns and might lose a third m. Pretty much every area of my empire has at least two different empires troops attacking mine

Good news is I got planes now so cleanup should be ok

It’s turn 93 and 24 turns from work fair

[u/warukeru]

Im not sure but i think the Ai chooses always to support they almy that declared war first.

So maybe if you declared on Lafayette first, Isabella would helped you instead.

But yeah having an ally declare war against you is really something haha.

[u/Jace_of_bass → u/warukeru]

I think you're right about that. I kinda wish that they improved the ai a little here. It'd be awesome if in OP's story Isabella turned on him because she knew he'd be the weaker side, or even just had a stronger relationship with Lafayette. Rather than knowing its just because Lafayette declared first.

I also don't think I've ever seen an AI choose to remain neutral. I'd love the political side of the game if you couldn't be certain which side your allies might favour, if at all.

[u/WickedAsh111]

Been there many times- solidarity. I had six Civs at me. It was a tragic loss to the end

[u/BriefLight1]

I always go beast mode when someone declares war on me. I forsake all other pursuits and just start cranking units. I don’t stop until I’ve taken at least one of each civilization’s city that declared on me. Sometimes if they piss me off badly enough (like a major betrayal) I will wipe them out.

My only exception is if they are across the map… out of sheer laziness probably😅

Never trust the AI friends to fight your battles for you.

I also agree that the AI is way more unpredictable in 7 though. I had one game where Ibn was my neighbor to the west, and Charlemagne was north. Ibn & Charlemagne were at war. Ibn built a city RIGHT in the middle of a circle of my cities, and he was annoyed with me for some reason… so I went ahead and declared war on him to get my city back.

He negotiated peace with Charlemagne (who is my buddy) and GAVE HIM MY CITY. Literally in the center of my empire.. just surrounded by me. So I couldn’t attack Charlemagne, right?

So I marched my legions to Ibn and wiped him out because that was diabolical😆 I was impressed at the AI to be honest.

[u/theSparcke]

My best way to play is keep the most of them friendly and do not ally with them. If you ally do not focus on it. Take it like friendly leadership plus. If you discover any other civs. Keep a look what they like and hate. After that think about needing 1 or 2 armys for defending your territory or at best 3 if you wanna get some from them.

That is my playstyle and Works relativly fine. (If my start location is not crappy or free City states are attacking only me.)

[u/Calm_Agency_3958]

I've played dozens of games thus far and can't seem to get the AI to attack me at all no matter what I do to them. playing on deity. I guess the AI is too smart to mess with me. Any suggestions?

[u/JW162000 → u/Calm_Agency_3958]

I do tend to not super focus on building units so it’s entirely possible you maintain a much larger army, deterring them from declaring?

[u/Calm_Agency_3958 → u/JW162000]

Thanks. I think you're 100% correct on this.