Best methods of pissing off other civilizations?

Question

What are the best methods of pissing off other civilisations?

I know going to war against them is probably one of the most effective ways of damaging your relationship with other civs, but I was also looking for none lethal methods too.

Denouncing them, asking them to stop settling cities near you and asking them to stop spying on you all seems to upset them, but by how much? And which is the most effective (or damaging, depending on your point of view)?

Is there anything else I can do, short of declaring war, to upset and provoke other civilizations?

I am hoping to upset all the civilizations so much, that they all join forces and declare war against me. I am guessing this might be difficult to achieve, especially as some civilizations will respond to your action in different ways, but anything that gets me close to this goal would be great.

Answer 1

which is the most effective

This shouldn't matter, as your goal is to piss them off as much as possible, and to achieve such a thing, you need to use various methods, not just a couple.

The above answers are good, and I'd have commented on them instead of making a new answer if I could, but since I can't, my list of priorities would be as following:

1. Settling cities nearby them. You'll be blocking their ability to expand and in their view, that territory belongs to them.

2. Once a civilization has a religion, start converting their cities.

3. Capturing cities. I know, you want a none-war method, but of all the things that pissed other civs off, I never got them to remove my status as Warmonger. You could decide to attack city-states, like Jonathan Drapeau suggested, as capturing these will have other civilizations call you a bully, but you won't be able to get their votes later in the World Congress, which matters for..

4. ..Proposing to make your religion the world religion. Also proposing to end all trade with a certain civilization will obviously piss them off and they'll spend the rest of the time, trying to remove your proposals if their accepted, after which you can vote against them consecutively.

5. Once you have archaeologists, start digging in their borders and don't make touristic spots, but take the artifact for yourself.

6. The suggestions given in the other answers.

And finally, but very important:

7. For most of these, they will tell you to back off, and by accepting, it'll count as a promise which will last for 30(I believe) turns. I feel like breaking these promises ('I won't settle nearby you anymore' > Settles anyways) will piss them off too.

Other ways of angering them are mostly at random, like not giving back their units, building their wonders before them, etc. And mostly depends on how much luck you get for such opportunities. Hope this helps :)

Answer 2

There's a number of things you can do that can make other Civs angry with you, although some of them are tough to determine.

1. Becoming allies with City States they are allied with will almost always result in a "speaking to"

2. Going to war with a Civ/Ally of a Civ

3. Building a Wonder that a Civ wanted. You can't tell what ones they want exactly, but you can get an idea based on their AI Style(unless you have that randomized). Aggressive Civs will always want Wonders that increase their combat capabilities. Diplomatic Civs will want Wonders that increase their Culture/Tourism, etc.

4. Placing military units along their borders.

5. Converting/Trying to convert their cities religions.

6. Voting against something they propose in the World Congress, or Proposing something that goes against their play style(Brave New World expansion)

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones off the top of my head

EDIT:: Having a spy get caught in their city usually upsets them too, but you can't really control that.

Answer 3

Not respecting your promises is a sure way to make other civs angry at you. In a game I moved all my troops near one civ's border (the romans) with the intent of declaring war the next turn. I got contacted by Cesar warning me about my troop movement along his territory, to which I answered I'd move them away ASAP. And next turn, rather than moving my troops away, I declared war as I had planned.

A few turns later, every other civ denounced me, and from there it went into a downward spiral, each civ denoucning me right after the "denoucing delay" got expired (30 turns or so).

Answer 4

Refusing any trade they offer and offering trades that you're sure they'll refuse will also help getting them to hate you eventually.

Attacking city-states that a civilization pledged to protect.