Open borders

[76561198106664613]

Has anyone ever opened their borders for other civs?

Has it ever turned against you? Did they use it to get a bunch of troops near your cities and attack?

I have never opened my borders, just for that reason.

[zxcvbob]

I often exchange open borders, usually early in the game when our ships cannot go into deep water, or late in the game when I'm trying to influence the other civ with my excess tourism.

It can bite you in the butt if they start swarming you with missionaries or Great Musicians, or if you are a lot weaker than them and they scout you out then declare war.

If they bring a bunch of troops inside your border and then declare war, that ends the open borders and they get kicked-out before they can attack. But they are still right at your border

I'm trying to figure out when it to exchange embassies and when not to.

[CREEEEED [FIRCE]]

I always get open borderswith other civs, because I'm always the one that wants to do get a bunch of troops next to that civ's cities. An added bonus is that the other civs can't do anything about having open borders with you untill the deal ends, so you can make huge advancments in a short space of time.

[TrekkieGrrrl]

Also if you're aiming for a Cultural Victory (as I do because it's the easiest way to win) open borders are essential.

[Driftrunner]

Drach, I wouldn't worry too much about other civs ambushing you due to open borders. When a civ declares war on you they are ejected from your territories. The same is true of you, you will be ejected from their territories if you declare war on them.

That being said there are a few benefits and perils of opening your borders. If you chose to open your borders your religion will spread to them faster, and you get a (small) diplomatic boost. One of the biggest reasons I don't open my borders is the other civ troops acting as roadblocks.

[Assassin]

Open borders are preferably done with a 2-3gpt for them opening their borders. 99% of the time they go for it. Its fairly cheap and it makes life easier. You can spread your religion easily over there, not that you necessarily should. You can move troops through their territory (but they get bumped out if they dow or you dow). In addition you can move troops to the OTHER side of their territory to start some sort of crazy flank, just so long as you arent in their territory when you dow.

I usually go for open borders, early game open borders for open borders is nice.

[Burbot]

Open borders are useful at times. I tend to open them early game when the pros outweigh the cons. Late game I tend to close borders to avoid/slow down any religous and cultural units.

Pros:
Straight across trade for exploration, happiness from wonders, faith and gold from discovered CS. The open borders agreement is a positive diplo modifier. The AI will buy your open borders for 1 GPT, useful if opening their borders is useless to you.

Cons:
Military states will scout you. AI religous units move freely without attrition. AI Archeologists can dig up your goodies.

[Twelvefield]

Originally posted by Thanter:

Military states will scout you. AI religous units move freely without attrition. AI Archeologists can dig up your goodies.

All of this. Don't open your borders if you have something to hide, like your Capitol is protected by a single Warrior. Same goes for Embassies. You have to look at your land through the enemy's eyes. If you appear strong, they will respect you. If you leave your capitol unattended, they will attack.

Although, if you look at your military advisor, the AI does have a sense of how powerful your military is even wthout embassies and open borders.

[McCancer]

I mostly dont open my borders due to the fact that every time i do they just take advantage of it and send in missons or just start scouting me out for my military size and if it is small they declare war.

[zxcvbob]

I forgot about the archaeologists. Made me so mad the first time that happened. (the lesson learned: if you have open borders, park a unit on top of any antiquity sites until you get around to digging them up yourself.

[5n4k3d0cToR]

Originally posted by Driftrunner:

Drach, I wouldn't worry too much about other civs ambushing you due to open borders. When a civ declares war on you they are ejected from your territories. The same is true of you, you will be ejected from their territories if you declare war on them.

That being said there are a few benefits and perils of opening your borders. If you chose to open your borders your religion will spread to them faster, and you get a (small) diplomatic boost. One of the biggest reasons I don't open my borders is the other civ troops acting as roadblocks.

Indeed. That exploit was possible in previous titles, but not this one mate

[ajhartman65]

Originally posted by zxcvbob:

I'm trying to figure out when it to exchange embassies and when not to.

For exchanging embassies i usualy wait until somebody founds the WC, otherwise you are just inviting spies (once they are available) to steal your techs. The exceptions being when you know a civ has already physically scouted your cap or if you have several CS that want you to find so-and-so civ and you don't want to bother sending units to find them.

[Ryika]

Originally posted by Lucpol |hg:

Indeed. That exploit was possible in previous titles, but not this one mate

Their units will be all over the place though, which can lead to problems and a lot of pillaged tiles. A focused army is - ironically - easier to defend against without taking too much damage.

@topic:
Getting open borders from other Civs is always nice and really cheap as long as they don't hate you - it allows you to scout their lands and will give you bonus-tourism. (Which is always good, as high tourism will help your happiness once ideologies kick in)
Giving other Civs open borders is generally not that good, for the exact same reasons.

[5n4k3d0cToR]

Originally posted by Ryika:

Originally posted by Lucpol |hg:

Indeed. That exploit was possible in previous titles, but not this one mate

Their units will be all over the place though, which can lead to problems and a lot of pillaged tiles. A focused army is - ironically - easier to defend against without taking too much damage.

@topic:
Getting open borders from other Civs is always nice and really cheap as long as they don't hate you - it allows you to scout their lands and will give you bonus-tourism. (Which is always good, as high tourism will help your happiness once ideologies kick in)
Giving other Civs open borders is generally not that good, for the exact same reasons.

True. Thats why i enjoy 'islands' maps :)

[Peaceful Panda]

No I almost never give people open borders. In fact I try to settle my cities so that it restricts the AI's ability to move around. Somewhere along the line I stopped playing nice with the AI. Now I'm just a total opportunistic jerk to everyone.

[andrewtsnyder]

I do open borders and embassies as soon as I meet someone early game, hen they can't really hurt you, because it improves relations for the whole game. I usually don't renew it more than once.