How to war without being hated by everyone

Skipping over real history, revisionist or otherwise, thanks to whomever resurrected this thread. The Original Post was both useful and freakin hilarious.

Several have referenced the matrix of different civs' tendencies on this thread and I think that misses the point. Try switching your settings to random personalities and then apply the OP's stratagem.

While the matrix is pretty interesting, the +/- 2 renders all but the most extreme traits too uncertain to rely on, IMHO. I played a lot of hours on Immortal/Marathon before switching to Deity/Standard. One of the biggest challenges to the switch was how to handle diplomacy. I read a lot of guides and had a decent idea of what to do, but experience has sharpened this part of my game, and I thought this guide was pretty helpful (and I'm still laughing).

Try playing random personalities. It will improve your game as you won't be "cheating" because you know someone's tendencies. You'll only be reacting to game conditions.
 
Germany's side of the story:

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/germany-declares.htm

But as it is said, the winner writes the history books.

Interestingly, that seems to leave out the fact those German subs were sinking American shipping in the first place. Nazi propaganda of the highest order....
sorry for off topic.

Random personalities sure messes with that list. It makes things a little more interesting. Genghis you cuddly bunny....
 
At least, until you don't care if everyone hates you. Forum is filled with people complaining they get denounced and everyone hates them for making small wars. They are doing it wrong.

The general gist of your guide is correct - diplomacy is about getting some civs to 'like' you so that you can go to war with 'enemies' without them hating you [as much] for it (they actually still do resent your warmongering but negative modifiers aren't shown if you have declared friendship). However, it still doesn't change a thing. Even the simple fact it makes a *huge* difference whether you capture all a civ's cities except their last one or take the last one, too is enough to form the conclusion: Civ V diplomacy is utter junk. Don't try to cover it up. ;)
 
The shipping between the U.S. and England and our lend-lease program to the USSR is tantamount to Bismarck being at war with Catherine and Elizabeth, trade routes established between Washington and England/Russia, and Bismarck plundering those trade routes. In the game, it matters who established the route. In RL, not so much. In the game you can even capture the city and you then benefit from the "neutral" trade route.

But anyway, having other civs trade with my enemies (and being able/not being able to plunder them) gives me a better feel for how it feels being Germany in that situation. Warring in RL without being hated may not be a perfect parallel with doing the same in the game, but it is an imperfect one (I mean obviously in RL you don't even need a DoW).
 
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