Now before you tell me the obvious on how it works, I KNOW that you need to have the religion in at least one city of all the other civs. I've done Apostolic Diplomatic Victories before, but this time I just can't get it to pop up to vote on. I've quadruple checked that its the correct religion on the victory conditions page and all the AIs have it, what does pop up is signing open borders with everyone, and all 5 civs DO get to vote on it. Is there some extra requirement I don't know about?

I'm playing on Deity difficulty, Huge map, Marathon time, I'm the only person with it as the state religion, so if it popped up there'd be no way I could lose, I have 200 votes to their 10 total between the 4 of them. Does it not pop up because theres no chance I'd lose? Or perhaps because no one else is a "full" member with it as their state religion so theres not two different people to vote for?

Its really pissing me off because I would have had victory at 50 AD on the hardest difficulty!

so if it popped up there'd be no way I could lose

That's why. With 3.13 they changed it so that you can't get the victory condition if you have more than the required number of votes to win.

Bh

Thats pretty stupid. So the only way to get a diplomatic victory is if someone actually has to vote for you to win? Which in of itself is pretty impossible on Deity difficulty, all the AIs are bastards.

Well it would make sense that to win diplomatically you need some help from others. :)

Yeah I realize that, it does make sense for a "diplo" victory to need others to like you, its just annoying since the AI civs pretty much won't vote for you no matter what. I got one guy up to +12, he liked me more than anyone else, and he still wouldn't vote for me. You can give away everything you have to them, give in to all their ridiculous demands, and they still don't like you enough. Not to mention on Deity difficulty the AIs are just totally unfair in their dealings. A "fair" trade to them is giving them a tech thats worth 3 times the tech they give you. Its just ridiculous when they reject an offer for something thats worth double even when I'm the weakest civ, its not like they have anything to fear. /rant

hehe sorry bout that, anyway, I forgot to mention, thanks to Bh for the answer, at least I know whats goin on now.

The best option, assuming it's possible, is to split off a colony. Vassals are forced to vote for their Masters.

Bh

The best option, assuming it's possible, is to split off a colony. Vassals are forced to vote for their Masters.

Bh

Are you sure?

In my current game I have founded 6 out of 7 religions. Then I switched to a minor religion before the AP was finished and carefully spread my state religion, so that I was safe to keep a majority of votes.

One of my former opponents now has become a vassal of mine (he is the only one with having that religion as state religion, so the two of us are the only full members). When I was asked to raise the declaration, he was voting for himself, some others were voting for me, the rest abstained. This way, I missed the victory by just some points.

As you see, I don't have the absolute majority, so the diplomatic victory is possible, but was blocked by my vassal (who became vassal many turns before that option became available).

Seems to me that under these circumstances, when your vassal is the only other full member, he won't have to vote for you.

The AI Civs on Diety (or any level) will vote for you with a +8 relations as long as they don't like someone else more. Sometimes only +7 works.

There are several ways to win with only votes from yourself. Your population must be below the auto-win level to trigger the vote. Then you can capture some cities on that last turn. Or plan to grow your population on that turn. Or change your religion to the AP religion. Anything to change the vote count.

The best option, assuming it's possible, is to split off a colony. Vassals are forced to vote for their Masters.

Bh
..... if they aren't candidates by themselves. If they are they will vote on themselves.

@Commander Bello

You had 2 options:

force your vassal to change religion ( easy if spiritual, change religion, ask to your vassal to change religion, return to AP religion )
Get a free AI that could be a 2nd candidate instead of your vassal ( not that easy )

I personaly find the easyist way to remove your own vasals as a candidate for the AP that you own is to be running Free Religion yourself (as the owner your always eligible), gift them techs up to Liberation, and then bribe them to switch to Free Religon, removing themselves from consideration.

I vote mahself president of dat der world aye.