Is it possible to be nearly 100% non-militaristic?

Raegx

Chieftain
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Messages
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If I build no military or nearly no military (few enough to guarantee that I am the last person in the demographics tab for military power) is there any AI that won't invade me?
 
If you play on Settler difficulty, yes. Beyond that, you will need some kind of military. I dont even think barbs enter your territory on Settler.
 
Is it possible? Yes. Likely? Not really. I know I've finished many games with no war with little to no military, but generally I was far from the AIs and wasn't making them mad otherwise.
 
I'm pretty sure the AI weighs it as "an opportunity" to take down a city uncontested...so you will get DOWd on.

It does depend on what difficulty you play on as others have mentioned. I have had success on Emperor actually selling off my military units when I was going for a non-domination victory.

I was in the Industrial era...of course this depends on AI relations and proximity. But I have done it multiple times and remained at peace. Standard size map, Standard game pace.
 
If you don't annoy anybody you can play peacefully at emperor at least. It's not always possible to not annoy anybody of course, and it's probably not the best way to play. Even friending a city state will annoy somebody, and expanding or trying to win will annoy somebody. But if you don't annoy anybody, they might not attack you, depending on which civ it is.

I believe if you have a good economy and tech then then the AI factors that into your potential military strength. Walls etc. count also. So that can deter them as much as units.
 
Just starting too close to where another AI started is enough to annoy them; you'll eventually need enough units to keep your cities from being overrun. But there's no need to conquer any cities to win.

If your wondering about the religious policy giving extra food when at peace (which would be the only situation in which a phony war you can't end would matter) , this policy works better on lower difficulty levels (Prince/King) than on Immortal and Deity.
 
Yes, it's do-able. Even on Deity. But it's hard and takes a lot of work on the diplomatic front.
 
on Vanilla, I was able to secure a diety win in this way because of a few things:
  1. I had my own small contient far from all other contients
  2. I did not make friends with anyone
  3. I allied zero CSs
  4. I maintained a minimal army, about one unit per city
  5. I have great trade relationships with everyone

I won with a cultural victory and never had a single war the whole game, it was my first and only diety win and it was a little dissapointing because I felt that I had gotten extremely lucky and kind of exploited the fact that the AI doesnt like to travel far over the seas, at least in Vanilla.

But that being said, I felt extremely close to war on many occasions and I believe it was my diplomacy that saved my ass from invasion from much larger Civs
 
There was no war partially because you had an army, however minimal. It helped to avert war.
The question posed was, can you win with no units?
Answer is, Yes probably under very specific map conditions. (eg. AI blocked by ice or CS)
 
The one time post-patch I was able to play 100% peaceful was when I was on a very flood plains rich continent all to myself. I actually didn't even meet anyone before Astronomy.
 
Location seems to be the big determining factor. I've had a few complete peace games, but I was always isolated.

There seems to be two reasons an AI will go to war with you:

1. You piss them off enough (attacking a ton of city-states, expanding ICS style)

2. You have natural borders and they decide to "expand" in your direction

The first is avoidable, but the second seems near impossible. Even Gandhi will go for the second option if you block him in.
 
Another thing I had forgotten originally is to pay the AI to fight each other (use the declare war on ____ option in trades). A lot of times the AI just wants to fight something with its new army and you can avoid war simply by pushing them to fight each other.
 
Was experimenting with the editor

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile...in+game+editor

If you want a real peaceful game (or at least a chance to breath and grow), put a water cooler .30 cal MG in one of your frontier cities (around turn 10 or so) and move it as you civ grows.

Use it as a equalizer to the civs that seem to be able to grow huge armies with no Gold / Resources. Puts a real dent in Barbarian attacks as well.

I am not saying use the editor to go nuts (which is fun as well) but just one unit is enough.
 
If I build no military or nearly no military (few enough to guarantee that I am the last person in the demographics tab for military power) is there any AI that won't invade me?

Only if you are far enough away from the borders of any AI. And by far, I mean that the closest border is more than 30 hexes away from your own border.
 
I 've played well over 800hrs and i hardly ever go to war.

Two things which will definitely make life a whole lot easier, plus tips...

A. The InfoAddict mod, if you don't already use it, can tell you how your military stacks up against other civs at any given time. By checking this you can make sure you have an adequate military - if your military is better than the average most civs won't attack you without a reason.

B. Sentries. The key is where to put them and to make sure they are upgraded to show the enemy what kind of resistance they'd be up against. Citadels are also good i find (with a cannon in it lol). Always ranged units on coastline, and wherever possible you want them on a hill for a better view (Sentry promotion from Armory is also useful). Look at the map and see where you would attack from if you were that civ and be careful who you allow Open Borders. Be wary of any strategic locations as the enemy may want that city. Allocate your military accordingly.

Tips...

Instead of conquering the nearest CS why not focus on building up good GPT and then buy their affections and focus mostly on that CS so they are permanent ally - while you do this you arm them with units (preferably at the time their prereq techs become available, not before they become obsolete) and don't be stingy. Yes, every unit you give them is one you don't have yourself but the threat of a powerful CS ally has deterred many a civ from fighting me (and if you are lucky enough to see the CS declare permanent war, you could actually watch as the CS expands to several cities which belonged to the aggressive civ, which is very amusing!).

NO DEFENSIVE PACTS. Firstly, don't tell the interactive video game you don't want a war lol - thats what it'll give you. Crucially though, it just drags you into other people's business and if you are using InfoAddict mod (i highly recommend doing so) then you can actually see the relations between civs and attitudes they have which makes diplomacy a whole lot easier - defensive pacts drag you into other people's wars or feuds and isn't worth doing. You may have had a research agreement or something and then the whole world dynamic gets radically altered. That to me, sounds like someone asking for war not trying to avoid it lol.

Walls, castles, before its too late. The idea is to have these up before the enemy decides to attack, not before he attacks. Being non-militaristic in this is about deterring the enemy, not defeating them. That's the golden rule. Don't denounce somebody far more powerful than yourself if you have no friends - unless you know what you're doing (again i'd recommend infoaddict for better diplomacy).

If none of this is enough and you just want to not think about war at all throughout the game then you could get a cheat mod like In Game Editor (IGE) or 'Have Fun', which i've tried myself but gameplay gets tedious when you overuse it, so i wouldn't recommend that really.

(Things to consider- you can take barbarians out of the game at the options menu; you can fiddle with the win conditions and take out conquest [but much more fun if you don't and with the above tips and practice you can avoid war 99% of the time anyways]; you can select civs to play against - egypt, india etc...)

:)
 
Before the patch I could win on immortal with 3 units, probably not now.
 
I once played through a game in which I did not enter war until the late 1900s (King difficulty, Epic speed). That said, I started on an isolated mini-continent, and none of the AIs even knew where I was until roughly the 1700s. Also, I did not literally have no military; I kept a few units around to deal with the odd barbarian spawn. The few units I did have were sadly out of date though. When I finally did have to go to war, the modernization of my army cost a ton.
 
Ghandi will sometimes leave you alone, but generally no, AI civs like easy prey. Gotta have a military for self-defense.
 
You still need some military, but if you have some units, you might be able to have a light military and still maintain peace. It depends a lot on the civs nearby. If you're next to, say, Attila, forget it: it's getting bloody. If you're next to more peaceful and loyal civs, you'll have a chance at it, assuming you do the right things diplomatically (don't annoy other civs with expansion, be careful with Friendships and Denouncing, etc.).
 
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