Newbie, please help!

Unable to begin War

I've just got the game and played a few small games where the opponents obligingly declared war on me. In this game the Arconians are streaking ahead and I need to attack them to cut them back. But I can't!

The dialogue window has an "Attack" instruction but the Arconians name doesn't appear when I select it. I'm guessing it's because they're too friendly. I didn't do anything to make them friendly. I only want to hate and kill them. But my ships won't fire on them.

Haven' these guys ever heard of Pearl Harbour?

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The 'attack' option in the dialogue (diplomacy screen) is only to bribe OTHER races to go to war. If you want to declare war yourself, on the left should be the option to 'declare war'.

Alternatively, just move your ships (make sure they're armed) over their ships. That should also declare war.

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Thanks but there is no 'declare war' option in the diplomacy screen and I've tried moving my fleets over the enemy ones but they just stop short.

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Do they have weapons?

Also, if your approval is below 50% and you're in a democracy or federation, you may not get the neccessary votes to start a war.

Edit: Are you playing a campaign or scenario? If the AI is set to team up with you, it may be impossible to attack.

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I'm playing a scenario, huge map, normal difficulty. I'm still on the default government, I think it's a federation and my approval is 70+. The AI opponent is the military leader and it's got stacks of units. I'm trying to attack a big stack of his capital ships but my fleets just bounce when I try to move them onto his fleet. He regards me warmly. Do I have to make him hate me before I can get a declare war dialogue on the trade screen?.

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I've since been able to start the war by attacking his planets directly. But I've still been unable to find a 'Declare War' option on any screen. Surely there must be one? How do you get it?

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I've since been able to start the war by attacking his planets directly. But I've still been unable to find a 'Declare War' option on any screen. Surely there must be one? How do you get it and where?

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

The explicit "Declare War" option in diplomacy is only available in DA and TA. If you're playing the base game, your only option is to simply start attacking (or bait the AI into declaring war on you).

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