Possibly stupid question.. Can I ally with minor races?

Yes you can

Trade is the key to allying with the minors. you need to have trade routes operating to get from friendly to close. then as long as you both have researched alliances you can then ally with then. if they havent got alliance researched give it to them or sell it to them.
~SDC~
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Yes you can but try to avoid it, The other AI's love to go war with the minor races and then you get involved in the war also.

Yes you can..

As for allying with anyone is concerned.. I never ally with anyone unless I can ally with everyone.. in which case I do so as soon as I can.. Because then you can't be drawn into any wars and no one can go to war with you.... Then you could say that you have the game won.. andits only a matte of time till you end the game..

I still maintain that Ally's are only usefull if and when you can ally with everyone.. and thus become a so called Neutral civilication.. (only neutral of course as far as wars go.. you are still free to incite wars between everyone else at no threat to yourself)

But be Carefull.. as there are new minor races comming into the galaxy all the time.. and yes you can and will be asked to go to war with them .. So I always try ASAP to get to be an ally with them too..

With that being said.. I do think that Stardock should make ways and means for AI's to break their allience with you like they tend to do with other AI's.. eg: if you start capturing their planets through culture bombing.. eg:
After capturing at least say 1/4 of their planets.. they then wake up to the fact that you really arn't their ally and then their parlinent should break their alience with you..

OR they could make it that you can only ally yourself with a max of 1/2 the races.. be they AI majors or minors..

Sure this is cutting my own throat but it would definatly make for a more interesting game

Eh? Not sure what you are talking about. AI's do not break alliances with anybody, unless an event triggers it, or you manage to get a civ allied with two civs who end up at war, the one in the middle has to choose sides. That's it. Otherwise, alliances do not end.


- Sirian

Which means that what Stardock should do is prevent (or at least discourage) players from ending alliances. And make allied planets much less likely to flip. It says that they want to become one with the other race's destiny or something like that (when one of your planets flips, anyway). Well, if they're allys, then their destinys are already linked. There's no reason to defect from one to the other, because they're supposed to be united in all things.

~SDC~

breaking an alliance is like the US attacking Britain . . . although public opinion here might not be that far from attacking France, with sufficient Causus Belli . . . still not bloody likely.

Any change in government should reset any treaties and degrade relations.

I had a special case in a recent game.

I was a bit behind everyone, and they all (except 2 that disappeared due to the foundamentalitst) got allied (i've never seen it before): alexians, carinoids, drengin, altarian, arcean. Each one allied with everyone else. Except me, allied with noone, and thus in not a very good position..
I that game I had decided not to get allies in order to avoid the multiple wars that never end (peace with an ally but not the other, so back to war next turn --- at least that was my experience until then).
At some point I tried to ally myself with some of them (Cari & Altarians), and did so.
But then the Drengin declared war on me, and everyone broke alliance with me. I destroyed some enemy ships in sectors where I had the advantage, and made peace with some of the aliens. For a few turns they remain in peace with me, then got dragged back to war. I choose the weakest civs and attacked them first, while defending against the drengin fleet (main power). After I gave the "little ones" a bloody nose, I made peace again. Then, next turn, offer them some money. And then techs. And send all my trade routes to them. At that point, with no trade and expenses at 100%, my income was -2000 a month (so after one year of war, I could only maintain that for another year). Suddenly the turn after I was close to both of them, so I proposed an alliance and surprise: something never had happened before happened. In the turn after that, they switched sides, and entered the war with me against teh Drengin!
And they were right to do so: Since I was defending only, in sectors with one maxed out attack & defense starbase
Usually I'm always the one left behind, even when I was first to make an alliance with a given race. They would always turn on me. Not always anymore it would seem
Since I saw that, I'm a lot more patient with the other shortcomings in diplomacy (IMHO).
Anyway, in the end, I invaded them all. So maybe they're wrong to give up on the Drengin...
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