AI empires splitting

[Neofelis]

I have read several times that AI enemies sometimes split. I´ve never seen that in three months of playing.

1. How does it happen?

2. Can I help it?

[teecee]

Sometimes the AI empires will have some planets that revolt and form their own empire. It's happened to me before.

Yes, you can help out. Send in a bunch of those spies that increase unrest. Social spies. Also use spies that attack economic interests. If you and the AI empire are both in the senate, attempt to have economic sanctions or embargos voted against them. Then when you have stirred the hornet's nest enough, attack them.:D Make sure you whack out their best worlds first. The more economic pressure you can put on them, the better the chance you will have of splitting up the empire.

Decades of increased unrest and difficult economic times, coupled with a war (good casus belli w/ them helps) should be enough to do it.;)

tc

[Hikari]

I assume by "splitting" you mean some of their planets revolting due to unrest. This is pretty rare, since the viceroy is actually decent at handling unrest when left to his own devices (he will, for example, build system ships to stop piracy if reasonable designs are available).

To "help" it along, you can do quite a few things. First, try to stick to likely targets. Humans are especially easy prey because of their Citizenship: Liberty. They may also have Representative governments (I'm not sure, I don't play them) by default, which are succeptible to spying. Any other race with similar Citizenship picks is in a similar boat.

Next, try to increase their unrest. The easiest way is by blockading their planets. This causes unrest directly, and also tends to cause starvation which is a major source of unrest. I think it might also prevent emmigration (not sure), which means unhappy people won't be able to simply move on to greener pastures, which makes them even more unhappy. Destroying their system ships (necessary for the blockading process) also results in piracy, which makes them even madder.

To get this to work you'll often have to be blockading a large number of systems at the same time to create the necessary widespread mineral/food shortages. Social spies presumably also help the process along, but I don't know to what extent; sending ANY spies should help, if it will result in the computer increasing its oppressometer to compensate (does it do this?).

You can also try dragging them into wars with races with whom they have high CB/CR. This supposedly causes unrest, though I have no idea if it's true or how much.

Generally speaking, the computer is good enough at handling unrest that you're unlikely to be able to cause a rebellion in an empire unless you were essentially capable of invading and defeating them anyway. The result doesn't tend to be that spectacular, either; the new "empire" spawned rarely has the capability to survive more than a few turns, much less prosper. All in all, it's pretty much a waste of time as an offensive tactic.