I've been working my way up the difficulty ladder very slowly with OCC games. I like how fast OCC games are and I can focus on particular areas without really changing my "empire management" strategies. After what I've learned about city management with OCC's I'll probably go back to experiment with an Over-REX strategy but for now I'm working on my weak points.

I've read numerous times how diplomacy is often the difference between getting destroyed on one difficulty level and easily winning 1 step down. I have to admit I'm very intimidated by everything diplomacy. I've read that doing well in diplomacy is about learning the personalities of the other civs and how to exploit them. A few posters mention a few long posts that give details but I've not found anything. If anyone has a link I'd really appreciate it.

I'm trying to improve my diplomacy game by forcing myself toward Diplomatic Victory in OCC games (standard map). This is hell. Everything I do or don't do affects the other civs and it seems like they all PMS. It seems like open aggression or hostility is less damaging overall than trying to sit on the fence and wait. I've read on the triangle diplomacy strategy but that takes pretty intimate knowledge of each civs programmed preferences to really shine.


I have learned a few hard lessons:

1. F4 (Foreign Adviser) every turn
2. Give into demands when another civ approaches
3. Know who the Pariah is in each game. Don't give into his demands.
4. per turn trade with world powers may keep the number 1,2,3 guys from warring with you.
5. That guy right besides you needs to either be your best friend or to die early.
6. Fear Shaka Zulu!!!

These basic rules don't take any real specific knowledge of the game leaders to use and seem to hold up for most games. If anyone has more that don't depend on knowledge of how the leaders typically play please chime in.

Thanks again for your input!




Oh and...PUNCH AFRICANS IN THE NUTS!!! Everyone from that continent should suffer because Shaka is that much of an A$$Hat. I wish I could delete him from my files so I'd never see him again.

OK first of all a big help is installing BUG. When you open F4 you get a screen called glance in which you can see how much points you have with each leader.

Ways to get better diplomacy:
1. Open borders gives you +1
2. Sharing a religion over a long time can get you up to +6 points
3. Give in to demands
4. Vote for them during AP elections
5. Just trade resources with them. Either buy them or sometimes even trade away your stone resource if you do not need them to get these points.
6. Make a deal with them that is just plain in their advantage. Philosophy for drama for example (1100 beakers against 440) gives you some extra points in the "our trades have been fair"-department (fair my a..) :)
7. If the big dog asks you to join a war and it is possible to make it a phoney war, then do so. Phoney war means you declare war but never do anything just to score some diplo points.
8. Use this site to see what the favorite civics are from different AI. It also gives you diplo points.

Diplo is a very important part of the game. Do not underestimate it. In my last game I survived because of it. And to give you some satisfaction, in that game Sitting Bull vassalised Shaka mwuhahahaha. Do not mess with the indians.

Oh and some AI's will attack you even when they are at friendly so watch out for the backstabbers. I believe Shaka is one of those AI's.

Oh and some AI's will attack you even when they are at friendly so watch out for the backstabbers. I believe Shaka is one of those AI's.

There are only 2 cases:

- Cathy, if someone asks her to declare
- Any AI, if the decision is made earlier, aka is already in war mode(WHEOOHRN)

There are only 2 cases:

- Cathy, if someone asks her to declare
- Any AI, if the decision is made earlier, aka is already in war mode(WHEOOHRN)

3. You have a vassal they're not friendly with. They technically aren't friendly since it averages diplo with your vassal. However, the screen definitely lies and says friendly, so that's a 3rd case.

If you're looking for an extremely thorough run down of leader personalities then follow this link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=3359

I just noticed the games that give me the most trouble are with all the other civs aggressive.

I can't keep these guys happy to secure votes.