"Very friendly" nation declaring war on me

[Homer Jay Jay Okocha]

What is THIS!?:

Spain is declaring war on me.

--> "Very friendly" relationship? Check!
--> Gave them money and technologies just the turn before they wanted to declare war, trying to get around this ♥♥♥♥? Check!

Why the hell does the game tell me that they are VERY ---- FRIENDly when they're going to declare war on me the next turn!?

(I play with Darth Mod - on hard campaign difficulty - btw...)

ANY way to somehow fix this amazingly impertinant situation for me? I guess no...

If there is no fix I'll stop playing because NOTHING I do in the game makes any sense if such things normally happen in ETW! I'll just waste a lot of time on it!

[76561198322384215]

Before I can answer this question I have a few of my own. With which nation are you playing? Do you have a land border with Spain? If so, does the adjacent region (the one where your border is shared) have a garrison?

Some factions just do not get along, period.

Every faction is somewhat different, but in general, there are very few nations that will not declare war on you if an adjacent region is left unoccupied, no matter how friendly. This is especially true when playing on the "hard" or "very hard" difficulty setting. Also, a land border is not always needed. By that I mean if you leave a coastal region wide open, many nations will look to take advantage of that as well.

Lastly, giving a nation money or technology does nothing to improve your relations. The only agreements that can do so on a regular basis are military alliances and trade agreements. Both of these start low and gradually improve relations until they "max out" so to speak. This increase is represented by an actual numerical value, so it is easy to quantify. Alternatively, buying them "state gifts" will give a boost to relations (also with a numerical value) based on how much you spent on the gift. These bonuses start high and gradually wear off until the effect is gone.

Bottom Line: Hope for the best, expect the worst; always leave garrisons in your cities.

[Homer Jay Jay Okocha]

Thanks for your detailed reply!

The explanation helps a lot - Even though the fact that they are "very friendly" still strikes me... How can that be? What's the sense of showing the state of diplomatic relation if they're worth nothing??

I'm the United States. I don't have a common border with Spain.
They're not attacking a vacated region, they're attacking my garrisoned capital. And I have the strongest of my forces (20/20 units) located in the city...........

[76561198322384215]

Well it sounds like their motive will going to be difficult to determine. Frankly, it could be one of many things. Before I get into it though, realize that the hostile nation does not have to attack the region that is vacant to verify that as being the motive behind their declaration. In other words, any vacant region in your empire is enough to start a war, even if the enemy does not actually go for that region.

As for the other possible reasons for their hostility, to name but a few: you are at war with a nation they are friendly with also; you have something they want, be it trade fleets on nodes they want, a specific region, or a specific trade resource, etc; they might be declaring war on you to get to someone else or to get someone else to declare war on them in support of you (one of the ai's favorite algorithms is to declare war on a nation you are allied with, just to get you into a war with them.) As you may or may not see, the motive can be hidden from plain view and hard to identify, (pat yourself on the back if you got that ; ) .)

Very friendly relations, although I do agree that it should "mean something," unfortunately, rarely do when playing on hard or very hard. It sounds absurd, and in most cases I believe it to be just that. However, there might be some logic behind a very friendly nation attacking you, have you ever heard the expression, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer?"

I apologize for this being so long, I will try to wrap it up. An important thing to remember when playing on harder difficulties is that the game is "hard-wired," as the expression goes, to keep the going tough for you. By that I mean that if you are a very shrewd diplomat and manage to end all your wars and get to a point where you have no enemies, the game will manufacture an enemy for you so as to keep the game difficult. It makes no logical sense in a human sense, but it is a game, not a human, sorry.

And last but not least, I will not leave you helpless in your current game, so here it is, the failsafe: When a nation is declaring on you and you absolutley do not want it to happen, give them unconditonal, infinite military access. It is dumb, I know, but so is a friendly nation declaring war on you. After all, you can always cancel the access whenever you choose.

[traveller]

Almost the same thing happened to me. As the United States I made a trade agreement with Spain. The next turn they declared war. Does not make sense? I said bring it on. I could handle them, but I much rather make money through trade.

[Crow]

Did you notice a message about the War of the Austrian Succession starting?

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by Crow:

Did you notice a message about the War of the Austrian Succession starting?

He explained he's playing as the United States. They don't have a monarch, let alone a Habsburger.

Next to that, Kabwards is correct with the military access. It's the best failsafe against being warred against.

[CasinoBandit]

Originally posted by Homer Jay Jay Okocha:

What is THIS!?:

Spain is declaring war on me.

--> "Very friendly" relationship? Check!
--> Gave them money and technologies just the turn before they wanted to declare war, trying to get around this ♥♥♥♥? Check!

Why the hell does the game tell me that they are VERY ---- FRIENDly when they're going to declare war on me the next turn!?

(I play with Darth Mod - on hard campaign difficulty - btw...)

ANY way to somehow fix this amazingly impertinant situation for me? I guess no...

If there is no fix I'll stop playing because NOTHING I do in the game makes any sense if such things normally happen in ETW! I'll just waste a lot of time on it!

Well, whenn love is so strong they feel they'd rather destroy you themselves before they lose your love.

[Kruniac Zio]

I love how people try to give an intelligent and rational explaination for something that we TW fans have known for a very long time:

The AI is ♥♥♥♥ and will always be hostile towards you. The logic? It's called Total War, not Total Diplomacy.

TL;DR - The diplomacy in every TW game has been ♥♥♥♥, the diplomacy in ETW is ♥♥♥♥, and that isn't going to change, unfortunately.

[cassastereo]

sneaky ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spaniards

[Grudgewrought]

Spanish are fical in the game never trust them. They land in Maine on the Road to independence. Garrison some minute men, and dont move them so they can aquire defensive boon. The Spanish come in large forces but their cavalry die easy on the anti-cavalry stakes. Alternatively sink their ships while they transport their army. Your funds might be too low for this option at the start of the campaign so you mght just want to get minute men to garrison while you build economy.