KB, don't forget you're under challenge to try for a DomV with a non-OP civ. Brazil would be perfect, but if you wait for whoever Acken lines up to follow, I will understand.
Fluphen Azine meanwhile has to win a CV with no war, no bribes, and no bulbs. I'll be trying for it too with Brazil, though I've done it a few times now. I have to say that KB27787 is right that it actually makes for a safer game because people love you
We instinctively think it will be harder early-renaissance when the AI has an army that can wipe us off the planet, and so we bribe them. But this only makes them more crazed and powerful, I think.
Hey, if I don't get to do it with Mongolia then you shouldn't get to do it with Brazil
And I for one don't see why Brazil would be so perfect for domination, given their jungle bias
Pracinhas have zero combat bonuses.
But I'm sure you don't need the t300 limit for your CV; as I understand sometimes runaways get out of control, and playing peacefully, your only option is to grind at them and hope you get them before the spaceship. You can take up to t350 if you want (CV is kinda different so turn time is not a good benchmark)
(after all your condition for me was sub t220 so I can't use XComs (not unless I can tech like Acken)... but otherwise X-Com rush will be fine for me...)
There are bribes which are "good" too (although I find extensive use of them rather cheesy); if someone denounces you, getting his friend to backstab him or have him backstab a friend is a good way to stop the chain denouncements from coming. It also prevents scenarios where your friend asks you to denounce someone.
Also, did you know, that the "you have made a declaration of friendship with one of their enemies" debuff goes away if the target goes to war with the said civ? Apparently only civs which they have denounced are considered "enemies". In other words, you can gain up to -15 in modifiers just by letting the enemy of your friend DoW your friend and get it over with. (they will likely denounce after the war though, but hopefully you've earned enough time to get that landmark up in their lands and prevent relations from deteriorating. That is because the "we have denounced them" or "they have denounced us" modifier is automatically overwritten with the "you are at war" debuff.
In reverse, you can also get rid of the "you have denounced leaders whom they have declarations of friendship with" debuff by just biting the bullet and DoWing the civ you denounced.
That, and when you see an AI launching an attack against you, a bribe in that time is OK too. Getting those free turns to build peacefully is worth some diplomatic maneuvering later when those AIs denounce each other (at the worst build some more landmarks or give away some freebies
)
Do not bribe to try to stop science/military runaways though; most likely they will win and grow even bigger; you can bribe against wonderwhorers though, to slow down their wonder building (doesn't always work though... I've seen AIs finish a wonder one turn before they get wiped out, just to deny me that wonder)
LOL SV Not CV ,Maria was in the +250 tourism just got my Mughal forts.I was way back in culture ,had to grab freedom after maria and cathy ,only manage 2 tenets on it but kept my citizen content.
