Achieving Apostolic Palace Diplomacy Victories
Version 0.11
Introduction
I noticed that quite a few players seem to know how to win by the Apostolic Palace quite readily, but judging from the numerous queries in Strategy and Tips, not everybody does. This guide is an attempt to remedy this. It does not give a detailed exploration of the mechanics of AP Diplomacy, for that can be found here.
Instead, this guide lets people know how exactly to score an Apostolic Palace Diplomatic Victory, specifically on higher levels, although the advice is applicable to all levels. I play most of my AP games on Emperor/Normal.
The Leader
Any leader will do, so don’t feel as if you have to pick someone in particular. However, some leaders are definitely better-suited for winning an Apostolic Palace Victory than others. For example, Ramesses II is undisputedly the best leader for this kind of victory. Being Industrious gives him a bonus to building wonders, specifically the Palace in particular, and the Obelisk lets him run early Priests, making it even easier to generate a Great Prophet for securing Theology. In a similar vein, Saladin is a good choice because of his Madrassas making it possible to easily run Priests.
In general, Industrious leaders are obviously preferred because they make it easier not only to build the Apostolic Palace, but to build early wonders such as Stonehenge and the Oracle, which generate Great Prophet points. Since you will probably be swapping religions and civics with some frequency, Spiritual is another handy trait. Finally, Philosophical can make it easier to score a Great Prophet by doubling the Great Prophet points given by either Stonehenge or the Oracle.
Phase I: Putting Together the Apostolic Palace
You want to get to Theology fast, and you want to get there first for two reasons: it guarantees you a new religion, and it makes sure that you will be starting the Apostolic Palace first. On lower levels, you can probably get away with researching the technology, but on Monarch and above, you need to secure it for free somehow if you want to get to it first. One option is to get the tech from the Oracle if you arrive at Monotheism quickly and research Writing during the building of the wonder.
However, the best option is simply to use a Great Prophet to lightbulb Theology. Ramesses II and Saladin have the option of running Priests from the Obelisk or the Madrassa, but other leaders will have to use Stonehenge and the Oracle to generate the necessary Great Prophet points, although it is possible to generate the points from Stonehenge alone even if your leader isn’t Philosophical. After building the wonder(s), try to research all the prerequisites for Theology so that the delay between the Great Prophet’s arrival and the lightbulbing of Theology is minimal.
Now you actually have to build the Apostolic Palace, but since you arrived at Theology first, and the AI doesn’t prioritize it, you have plenty of time, so relax. Select a state religion, preferably one that an AI spread to you. If an AI didn’t spread a religion to you, then simply pick Christianity (the religion given by Theology). Either way, at the end of the building process you need to change your religion to Christianity to lock the Palace into it, although you can switch back later to the AI’s religion.
Phase II: Religious, Diplomatic, and Technological Affairs
Once you’ve got the Apostolic Palace locked into Christianity, you need to spread it around to at least one city in each civilization, including vassals and colonies. Try to find crappy, low-population cities to hit with your missionaries. Technically speaking, the rule of the Apostolic Palace dictate that one civilization cannot generate over 75% of the vote (for Religious Leader) by itself, but I’ve found that this is rarely a problem, as those crappy cities tend to grow by the time the vote rolls around.
Make sure that every city in your empire (which should have an absolute minimum of 3 decently sized cities, although 6 are preferable) has your religion. Conversely, try to make sure that the international spread of your religion is as controlled as possible, as if it takes over one civilization that proceeds to convert, you will face serious problems controlling the vote. But this should rarely be a problem, as a civilization will probably have Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, or Confucianism as a state religion by the time you start spreading around Christianity, especially on higher difficulties or if there is a zealot in the world.
The rules of the Apostolic Palace dictate that you must have at least one other civilization vote for you in order to become president. This is done simply by sucking up to them: share their religion and their civics, give them donations of gold and techs, gift them a resource early on, don’t declare war on them, give in to their demands, etc. By the time they get to Friendly status, they will vote for you.
There is a caveat to this: the AI will vote for you if it cannot vote for itself or another civ that it likes more. Therefore, you should definitely rig the vote so that you are the only eligible leader. This is accomplished by building the Apostolic Palace and making sure that no civilization takes Christianity (or whatever) as its state religion.
On many maps, such as Continents, you will find that you can’t meet the last few civilizations until you have Optics (for Caravels). In cases like these, the obvious course of action is to aim for the technology after securing Theology. When you meet the other civs, you may have to switch to having no state religion, along with giving a few gifts, in order to get Open Borders treaties. If you meet a civilization that refuses to open its borders to you despite gifts and whatnot, don’t try the Gift-a-Caravel trick, because it doesn’t work as of the latest patch. Instead, you can try liberating a city with your AP religion in it. If a civilization is under Theocracy, try to bribe them into switching out of it, or just gift them a missionary (you need Open Borders for this to work).
On a related note, while trading technologies, which is recommended to fill in techs that you miss during your beelines, for the love of god don’t give anyone Theology. If they switch to Theocracy before you have planted a religion in one of their cities, you’ve just screwed yourself over. Finally, make sure you build defenses on both the land and sea in order to deter invaders. Follow all these steps, and wait for the vote to make you the anointed one…
Phase III: The End of History
So that’s it then. You had a score lower than 600 while the other dudes were into the thousands, your power rating was less than a third of anyone else’s, and you hid behind a fake religion all while spreading your faith around. You were the cowardly, spineless pope (popess?) of a minor religion that came to dominate the world by the quirks of the Apostolic Palace. I hope you’re happy with yourself. But what now?
Well I hope that by playing Apostolic Palace games, you learn things about technology, diplomacy, and survival that you can take back into your regular games. It’ definitely easier than playing an Emperor/Immortal/Deity level game for real, but it is a learning experience regardless.
Example Games
Deity - Qin Shi Huang
Here, Obsolete goes to surprising levels to secure Stonehenge and the Oracle before getting the Apostolic Palace. Note the manner in which he secures Kublai’s vote: because Kublai is Jewish, he cannot become a full member of the Palace, so Qin Shi Huang is the only candidate.
I will find more games and post one of my own in a later version of the guide.
Conclusion
All constructive criticism is accepted.
Version 0.11
Introduction
I noticed that quite a few players seem to know how to win by the Apostolic Palace quite readily, but judging from the numerous queries in Strategy and Tips, not everybody does. This guide is an attempt to remedy this. It does not give a detailed exploration of the mechanics of AP Diplomacy, for that can be found here.
Instead, this guide lets people know how exactly to score an Apostolic Palace Diplomatic Victory, specifically on higher levels, although the advice is applicable to all levels. I play most of my AP games on Emperor/Normal.
The Leader
Any leader will do, so don’t feel as if you have to pick someone in particular. However, some leaders are definitely better-suited for winning an Apostolic Palace Victory than others. For example, Ramesses II is undisputedly the best leader for this kind of victory. Being Industrious gives him a bonus to building wonders, specifically the Palace in particular, and the Obelisk lets him run early Priests, making it even easier to generate a Great Prophet for securing Theology. In a similar vein, Saladin is a good choice because of his Madrassas making it possible to easily run Priests.
In general, Industrious leaders are obviously preferred because they make it easier not only to build the Apostolic Palace, but to build early wonders such as Stonehenge and the Oracle, which generate Great Prophet points. Since you will probably be swapping religions and civics with some frequency, Spiritual is another handy trait. Finally, Philosophical can make it easier to score a Great Prophet by doubling the Great Prophet points given by either Stonehenge or the Oracle.
Phase I: Putting Together the Apostolic Palace
You want to get to Theology fast, and you want to get there first for two reasons: it guarantees you a new religion, and it makes sure that you will be starting the Apostolic Palace first. On lower levels, you can probably get away with researching the technology, but on Monarch and above, you need to secure it for free somehow if you want to get to it first. One option is to get the tech from the Oracle if you arrive at Monotheism quickly and research Writing during the building of the wonder.
However, the best option is simply to use a Great Prophet to lightbulb Theology. Ramesses II and Saladin have the option of running Priests from the Obelisk or the Madrassa, but other leaders will have to use Stonehenge and the Oracle to generate the necessary Great Prophet points, although it is possible to generate the points from Stonehenge alone even if your leader isn’t Philosophical. After building the wonder(s), try to research all the prerequisites for Theology so that the delay between the Great Prophet’s arrival and the lightbulbing of Theology is minimal.
Now you actually have to build the Apostolic Palace, but since you arrived at Theology first, and the AI doesn’t prioritize it, you have plenty of time, so relax. Select a state religion, preferably one that an AI spread to you. If an AI didn’t spread a religion to you, then simply pick Christianity (the religion given by Theology). Either way, at the end of the building process you need to change your religion to Christianity to lock the Palace into it, although you can switch back later to the AI’s religion.
Phase II: Religious, Diplomatic, and Technological Affairs
Once you’ve got the Apostolic Palace locked into Christianity, you need to spread it around to at least one city in each civilization, including vassals and colonies. Try to find crappy, low-population cities to hit with your missionaries. Technically speaking, the rule of the Apostolic Palace dictate that one civilization cannot generate over 75% of the vote (for Religious Leader) by itself, but I’ve found that this is rarely a problem, as those crappy cities tend to grow by the time the vote rolls around.
Make sure that every city in your empire (which should have an absolute minimum of 3 decently sized cities, although 6 are preferable) has your religion. Conversely, try to make sure that the international spread of your religion is as controlled as possible, as if it takes over one civilization that proceeds to convert, you will face serious problems controlling the vote. But this should rarely be a problem, as a civilization will probably have Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, or Confucianism as a state religion by the time you start spreading around Christianity, especially on higher difficulties or if there is a zealot in the world.
The rules of the Apostolic Palace dictate that you must have at least one other civilization vote for you in order to become president. This is done simply by sucking up to them: share their religion and their civics, give them donations of gold and techs, gift them a resource early on, don’t declare war on them, give in to their demands, etc. By the time they get to Friendly status, they will vote for you.
There is a caveat to this: the AI will vote for you if it cannot vote for itself or another civ that it likes more. Therefore, you should definitely rig the vote so that you are the only eligible leader. This is accomplished by building the Apostolic Palace and making sure that no civilization takes Christianity (or whatever) as its state religion.
On many maps, such as Continents, you will find that you can’t meet the last few civilizations until you have Optics (for Caravels). In cases like these, the obvious course of action is to aim for the technology after securing Theology. When you meet the other civs, you may have to switch to having no state religion, along with giving a few gifts, in order to get Open Borders treaties. If you meet a civilization that refuses to open its borders to you despite gifts and whatnot, don’t try the Gift-a-Caravel trick, because it doesn’t work as of the latest patch. Instead, you can try liberating a city with your AP religion in it. If a civilization is under Theocracy, try to bribe them into switching out of it, or just gift them a missionary (you need Open Borders for this to work).
On a related note, while trading technologies, which is recommended to fill in techs that you miss during your beelines, for the love of god don’t give anyone Theology. If they switch to Theocracy before you have planted a religion in one of their cities, you’ve just screwed yourself over. Finally, make sure you build defenses on both the land and sea in order to deter invaders. Follow all these steps, and wait for the vote to make you the anointed one…
Phase III: The End of History
So that’s it then. You had a score lower than 600 while the other dudes were into the thousands, your power rating was less than a third of anyone else’s, and you hid behind a fake religion all while spreading your faith around. You were the cowardly, spineless pope (popess?) of a minor religion that came to dominate the world by the quirks of the Apostolic Palace. I hope you’re happy with yourself. But what now?
Well I hope that by playing Apostolic Palace games, you learn things about technology, diplomacy, and survival that you can take back into your regular games. It’ definitely easier than playing an Emperor/Immortal/Deity level game for real, but it is a learning experience regardless.
Example Games
Deity - Qin Shi Huang
Here, Obsolete goes to surprising levels to secure Stonehenge and the Oracle before getting the Apostolic Palace. Note the manner in which he secures Kublai’s vote: because Kublai is Jewish, he cannot become a full member of the Palace, so Qin Shi Huang is the only candidate.
I will find more games and post one of my own in a later version of the guide.
Conclusion
All constructive criticism is accepted.
.
