Okay, you don't necessarily have to be Swedish to take on this strategy--this is more about liberating stuff. But it does work better as the Swedes, and being the Swedes does kind of force you toward this sort of strategy. I won't promise that this is going to win you any sub-200-turn victories or any Hall-of-Fame scores, but it can win you some tough Deity games against runaway civs. Here's the high-level summary:
- Let somebody other than yourself be the strong, warmongering menace to the world whom everybody hates. Shaka and Genghis will be delighted to oblige.
- Cozy up to that guy (but not DOF).
- Look for spots on the map where there are lots of puppeted cities. Those are potential places for you to invade.
- Bribe him to DOW the rest of the world.
- Steal all of his CS allies you can at the last minute.
- Backstab him and DOW him.
- Liberate those cities.
This is a form of "warmongering without the hate" strategy, and there's a reason why you might like it. There are a few qualities that puppeted cities have in common: they have already been sacked, population halved, low city defense, not a high priority for the AI to defend, often not very useful...and they have a crazy high diplomatic bonus for liberating them. Those cities you might have been overlooking all this time: prime real estate. On Deity, cities you can liberate are actually fairly common, but you have to look for them and make them a part of your strategy. This is a shift from the old-fashioned, domination style, take-all-the-capitals approach. Capitals are hard to take--and carry a stiff warmonger penalty. The other guy's puppets are easy.
Now, here's what happens when you do liberate them:
- you take the city away from the other guy
- you give some guy who is not a threat to you some crappy city that is of little use to you
- you reverse the global warmongering penalty against yourself
- the AI/City State who gets liberated loves you (if not the rest of the world as well)
- you'll probably get a DOF and an RA out of it
- you can trade for the resources you liberated away without too much trouble--after all, that guy's your friend
- more World Leader votes for you
- no unhappiness for you. you didn't annex anything.
- there are probably captured workers nearby, too, which you also can liberate and return, for further diplomatic bonus
- free Open Borders if you resurrect them
- those Open Borders are not just anywhere. They are right where you want them: in the middle of the war zone.
For example, you go to war with the Zulu and liberate Shanghai, thereby bringing China back into the game. All those units that were attacking Shanghai--they are now within CHINA'S borders. The Zulu are not at war with China.
- if you're Sweden, you pop a new civ on the map and become friends with him, giving you another 10% GPP bonus.
- if you liberate a CS, he is now allied with you, meaning that city is a new target for the AI's units.
- you can immediately demand tribute from a liberated CS. After all, you have 150 influence, no quests to revoke yet, and your military is all right there to intimidate him.
In short, liberated cities can be more beneficial to you than puppets.
The hardest part of this strategy is declaring war on who is possibly the strongest AI in the game. Instead of preying on the weak as you might be used to, you are literally preying on the predator. It's not an easy fight, he's probably got units everywhere, and you might have to scale back your trade routes. You might have to scale back your other plans as well in favor of military.
But here's what you've got going for you: he's at war with a bunch of other people, too (because you just bribed him). They're all re-focusing their builds on military, too. You're not going after the toughest cities to crack, like his capital: you're taking on puppets that have fallen already. And it's a matter of expectations: you don't have to annihilate him. This is about wearing down the leader, getting a good peace deal, and shoring up your position diplomatically.
The war might be stalemated for awhile--you might even be losing a little--but that's okay, it gets better. The important thing is simply not to lose units. You get unit promotions and GG's, which you can citadel (if you're not Sweden). You can help that along a little by taking the left half of the Honor tree. If you're picking off unit after unit and plundering his trade routes, and his allies are wearing him down as well, sooner or later you'll have the opportunity to take on one of his weaker cities. Once that happens, it's downhill from there. That's when he starts offering good peace deals and you start liberating stuff (you can liberate all the weak, useless cities you want--the same cannot be said when you puppet or raze them). Liberating makes him weaker and you stronger, and that means better peace deals and a new leader on the scoreboard.
Another trick: go ahead and let the city(s) change hands a few times. Who's racking up the warmonger penalty--him, or you? You are liberating every time. So what if India's sole city is some junk population-1 city that's changed hands 4 times? You've got the DOF with India, and that's what really matters (just don't fund the RA just yet if he's going to die again). And the CS bonuses are still the same no matter how many times it's been sacked. You can take down many AI units while he's busy frantically trying to retake your city.
Another trick: after you've wrested a couple cities away from him, Embargo him in World Congress. After all that diplomacy, you've got the world hating him and you should have the votes. No trade routes to him means more sent to you.
Another note: while looking out for captured AI capitals makes sense (e.g. if Assyria holds Istanbul, well...you know Istanbul was not originally Assyrian...), liberating their capital is not necessarily your prime target. It's best to liberate some hole-in-the-wall city, so they never really rival you. Their capital might be juicy enough that you might want to puppet that, anyway (in spite of a couple diplomatic penalties you will get for that). I liberated India last game, but did I liberate Delhi? Heck NO!! Delhi had 10 wonders! Gandhi and I were still best buds.
Net result: an intact, peace-deal puppet city. The world loves you. A DOF or two (along with the RA's that go with it). A solid CS ally or two. World Congress votes. And you knocked down the leader several notches.
- Let somebody other than yourself be the strong, warmongering menace to the world whom everybody hates. Shaka and Genghis will be delighted to oblige.
- Cozy up to that guy (but not DOF).
- Look for spots on the map where there are lots of puppeted cities. Those are potential places for you to invade.
- Bribe him to DOW the rest of the world.
- Steal all of his CS allies you can at the last minute.
- Backstab him and DOW him.
- Liberate those cities.
This is a form of "warmongering without the hate" strategy, and there's a reason why you might like it. There are a few qualities that puppeted cities have in common: they have already been sacked, population halved, low city defense, not a high priority for the AI to defend, often not very useful...and they have a crazy high diplomatic bonus for liberating them. Those cities you might have been overlooking all this time: prime real estate. On Deity, cities you can liberate are actually fairly common, but you have to look for them and make them a part of your strategy. This is a shift from the old-fashioned, domination style, take-all-the-capitals approach. Capitals are hard to take--and carry a stiff warmonger penalty. The other guy's puppets are easy.
Now, here's what happens when you do liberate them:
- you take the city away from the other guy
- you give some guy who is not a threat to you some crappy city that is of little use to you
- you reverse the global warmongering penalty against yourself
- the AI/City State who gets liberated loves you (if not the rest of the world as well)
- you'll probably get a DOF and an RA out of it
- you can trade for the resources you liberated away without too much trouble--after all, that guy's your friend
- more World Leader votes for you
- no unhappiness for you. you didn't annex anything.
- there are probably captured workers nearby, too, which you also can liberate and return, for further diplomatic bonus
- free Open Borders if you resurrect them
- those Open Borders are not just anywhere. They are right where you want them: in the middle of the war zone.
For example, you go to war with the Zulu and liberate Shanghai, thereby bringing China back into the game. All those units that were attacking Shanghai--they are now within CHINA'S borders. The Zulu are not at war with China.
- if you're Sweden, you pop a new civ on the map and become friends with him, giving you another 10% GPP bonus.
- if you liberate a CS, he is now allied with you, meaning that city is a new target for the AI's units.
- you can immediately demand tribute from a liberated CS. After all, you have 150 influence, no quests to revoke yet, and your military is all right there to intimidate him.
In short, liberated cities can be more beneficial to you than puppets.
The hardest part of this strategy is declaring war on who is possibly the strongest AI in the game. Instead of preying on the weak as you might be used to, you are literally preying on the predator. It's not an easy fight, he's probably got units everywhere, and you might have to scale back your trade routes. You might have to scale back your other plans as well in favor of military.
But here's what you've got going for you: he's at war with a bunch of other people, too (because you just bribed him). They're all re-focusing their builds on military, too. You're not going after the toughest cities to crack, like his capital: you're taking on puppets that have fallen already. And it's a matter of expectations: you don't have to annihilate him. This is about wearing down the leader, getting a good peace deal, and shoring up your position diplomatically.
The war might be stalemated for awhile--you might even be losing a little--but that's okay, it gets better. The important thing is simply not to lose units. You get unit promotions and GG's, which you can citadel (if you're not Sweden). You can help that along a little by taking the left half of the Honor tree. If you're picking off unit after unit and plundering his trade routes, and his allies are wearing him down as well, sooner or later you'll have the opportunity to take on one of his weaker cities. Once that happens, it's downhill from there. That's when he starts offering good peace deals and you start liberating stuff (you can liberate all the weak, useless cities you want--the same cannot be said when you puppet or raze them). Liberating makes him weaker and you stronger, and that means better peace deals and a new leader on the scoreboard.
Another trick: go ahead and let the city(s) change hands a few times. Who's racking up the warmonger penalty--him, or you? You are liberating every time. So what if India's sole city is some junk population-1 city that's changed hands 4 times? You've got the DOF with India, and that's what really matters (just don't fund the RA just yet if he's going to die again). And the CS bonuses are still the same no matter how many times it's been sacked. You can take down many AI units while he's busy frantically trying to retake your city.
Another trick: after you've wrested a couple cities away from him, Embargo him in World Congress. After all that diplomacy, you've got the world hating him and you should have the votes. No trade routes to him means more sent to you.
Another note: while looking out for captured AI capitals makes sense (e.g. if Assyria holds Istanbul, well...you know Istanbul was not originally Assyrian...), liberating their capital is not necessarily your prime target. It's best to liberate some hole-in-the-wall city, so they never really rival you. Their capital might be juicy enough that you might want to puppet that, anyway (in spite of a couple diplomatic penalties you will get for that). I liberated India last game, but did I liberate Delhi? Heck NO!! Delhi had 10 wonders! Gandhi and I were still best buds.
Net result: an intact, peace-deal puppet city. The world loves you. A DOF or two (along with the RA's that go with it). A solid CS ally or two. World Congress votes. And you knocked down the leader several notches.