The AI doesn't know how to play the game

why is there a diplomatic victory if all you have to do is spam end turn for 5 hours?

on deity, the AI will do nothing to prevent me getting city states

at the end, several opponents are sitting there with 20,000 gold while I win with 2 soldiers and the remaining city states as my ally

nobody will fight me and take out my single undefended city
nobody will spend that gold to buy a city state or two
they will all vote for themselves for world leader

so it's like 35 for me and 5 for everyone else... hooray?

maybe the bigger question is why even bother releasing a single player game without AI?

I mean clearly something is going on because the turns are taking forever. but what's the point of that if the AI doesn't even want to be part of the game? it's like it's just there to slow it down and spew some gibberish in some scripted cinematic from time to time

Upload a save. I really want to see you empire with two soldiers winning a diplomatic victory with all around docile AIs. Just to see what's going on. Because in my games, it is I who have to become panicky and try to avoid an AI from winning diplomatically.

In my just finished game, the AI was trying really hard to buy out my alliances until the 1st world congress voting (which was not decisive since I managed to get only 34 delegates by that point). But then I got one extra from the voting and then the AI just gave up on diplomacy. I won culturally 10 turns before the next voting, which I would surely have won, since I got allied to all the remaining CS by that time.

Also to this discussion it should be said that money doesn't do that extremely much and if you have a CS ally, very often you have a lot of influence. Influence is easier to get, the more influence you have.
In my first BNW game, I lost diplomatically just because of this. I had money, but the winner (Alex) had so much influence over many of the CSs so it was pointless. Could I have done something earlier, no, he was on another continent, so, the fist half of the game I had no clue on what he (or that he existed) was doing and also I was having a lot of problems surviving (being attacked by all sorts of maniacs).
An my next game, I thought that, winning diplomatically seems easy enough and I did what Alex did, start to get high enough influence in CS, but there where to many CSs and also to many AIs that wanted to be ally with them. I won a science victory instead, much easier.

All games are different, sure I can see a game where no AI is fighting, ever (all AIs are builders) or where no one is interested in CSs. But as a norm, no. I have played 5 games so far and besides the first (where Alex controlled most CSs with very high Influence no less), the number of votes in the UN (the time where you can win diplomatically) have been "fairly" even, at least not extreme.

save attached, alternatively:

http://www.twitch.tv/biz2/c/2595465


there was a power graph a few turns ago

AI's had 100000-300000
I had 3000

I see I had 3-4 gift soldiers also which I forgot to count. that's still ancient units and extremely weak...