Is there a way to have a firm close borders?  Because right now I am adjacent to the Huns and they are constantly sending units into my territory and attacking my units and outposts.  They  even took one of my outposts, but it flipped back a few turns later.  All I want is a way short of full scale war to keep them away.

I think you need to have a Non-Aggression Pact (NAP) for them to leave you the bleep alone. I could be wrong. Maybe. 

ranma100 wrote:

Is there a way to have a firm close borders?  Because right now I am adjacent to the Huns and they are constantly sending units into my territory and attacking my units and outposts.  They  even took one of my outposts, but it flipped back a few turns later.  All I want is a way short of full scale war to keep them away.

Non Aggression pact.

There is no forced closed border, as it should be. You can keep sending them grievances though and if they dont want a war with you, they'll start leaving you alone. Otherwise you have to either deal with them, let them do their thing, get a non aggression pact, or go to war with them and knock them out yourself, or make them a vassal.

Plenty of options. :)

Your outposts are not within your borders. Outposts are just that - small staging areas like the Romans used to do. In real world terms, for you to get a border, you need to make a city (or a province in Roman terms).

Expansionist do get to trespass but you get a grievance. That's free money when you go to war, so use it.

Also you can attack anybody anywhere, as long as you DON'T have a nonaggression pact. The benefit of an NAP is they won't ransack your outposts, but the downside is you can't freely kill them. Now if they're being aggressive, maybe put some troops near them to warn them - it'll either slow down their movement, or they may try to attack you. Guess what? When they try to attack you, that's another grievance - FREE MONEY. Take it. But retreat. As long as you're not in an actual war, retreating costs you nothing.

Now once you get some grievances, turn them into demands. This is what will allow you to go to war with strong war support and get a ton more money/land when the war ends. The more demands the better.

Please learn this system. It's so rewarding and so much better than civ's random wars.