Totally Pacifist victory!

I've no doubt that others have already done this, but this is a first for me! Won a Culture victory in a Marathon game and never got into a single war in nearly 5000 years!

Emperor, Marathon, Huge, Pangaea, Raging Barbarians, 41 City States
Only Victory conditions were Culture and Science
Played as Askia/Songhai, last turn scoreboard 2423
AI Opponents:
Babylon, 395
Brazil, 1306
Carthage, 1765
Mongolia, 927
Morocco, 1274
The Huns, 1078
The Mayans, 617
Venice, 1178
Last turn: 1890, January

I was closing in on a Cultural victory when Carthage took me by surprise by completing the Apollo Project. I pressed on to complete the Internet (+100% Tourism), figuring I could catch her before the Finish Line. At the end she had completed all 3 SS Boosters AND the Hubbell Space Telescope (free spaceship factory, +25% Production of spaceship parts) while I had only gotten the boosters to each 3/4 complete. My overall Production and money was higher, and my Research was running at @3500 beakers per turn, but absent the Cultural victory, it would have been iffy as to which of us would have finished the spaceship first.

Cool, and well done! Did you bribe Civs to attack each other or did you truly play peacefully?

Every time I try for a culture victory, I have to intentionally lose a world leader vote first.

I guess rushing alhambra and sistine is important here, as the civ building it will have too much culture for a peaceful tourism to overcome.

cpm4001 said:

Cool, and well done! Did you bribe Civs to attack each other or did you truly play peacefully?

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I preferred to Ally with ALL of them (which I was by late game). I make a point of NEVER bullying a CS, and when one of my protected CSs (which was every one I ever met), I'd tell the offending civ, "You'll pay for this." Fleshed out Patronage by early Industrial Era, so it became increasingly easier to keep CS Allies. Also made Declarations of Friendship every chance I got, and declined every "Join me in warring against...." overture. Not once could I DoF with Attila or Pacal though. And never made any Defensive Pacts for fear a DF partner would get attacked, drawing me into a war.

Because of the Alliances with Militaristic CSs, I had a rather LARGE Military. (Even at Friend level, they were still throwing the occasional unit.) Spent nearly the entire game in the top 3 for army size. Add in LOTS of CS Allies and _nobody_ wanted to mess with me because going to war with me meant going to war with half the planet. Overall, I think at most, I actually built or paid for a quick build for less than 10 units for the entire game. Most of those were Scouts I built very early in the game. All the rest were CS donations that I would upgrade as the eras passed.

zukenft said:

I guess rushing alhambra and sistine is important here, as the civ building it will have too much culture for a peaceful tourism to overcome.

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Wasn't fast enough for Alhambra. Did manage Sistine though.

Overall, there's a distinct advantage in being the tech leader and entering a new era first: There's no one able to start building a new Wonder for that era before you. But for new Wonders for me, Military-enhancement Wonders were my lowest priority. Which is why Alhambra got away from me.

Did this in my first BNW game as the Shoshone. Not a single war was declared on me. Funnily enough it didn't prevent the rest of the world from killing each other.

I've been playing my first BNW game as Brazil, and although I'm doing bad and almost everyone has a better military than me, I haven't been in a single war.

Yet my archaeologist found this.....

Did it used to be an ancient ruin?

Heerlo said:

Yet my archaeologist found this.....

Spoiler :

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I'm surprised that it was Kathmandu and not Hanoi.

It seems that nearly all of the Dig Sites are located where there was at one point of time a barbarian encampment. It seems that "barbarian" doesn't necessarily mean actual barbarian. More like it just means a small group that isn't aligned with a bigger civ or established City State. As such, the "Kathmandu" aspect may have just been a small splinter group that got fed up with how things were developing in that City State and decided to strike out on their own to carve out a new city somewhere. Unfortunately for them, they encountered a MUCH bigger outfit that didn't like having any interlopers coming around in their backyard.

Aenthin said:

Did it used to be an ancient ruin?

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I can't even remember.

CaptainPatch said:

I'm surprised that it was Kathmandu and not Hanoi.

It seems that nearly all of the Dig Sites are located where there was at one point of time a barbarian encampment. It seems that "barbarian" doesn't necessarily mean actual barbarian. More like it just means a small group that isn't aligned with a bigger civ or established City State. As such, the "Kathmandu" aspect may have just been a small splinter group that got fed up with how things were developing in that City State and decided to strike out on their own to carve out a new city somewhere. Unfortunately for them, they encountered a MUCH bigger outfit that didn't like having any interlopers coming around in their backyard.

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But that outfit was supposed to be my civ, right? I'm playing as Brazil, yet I've never been in a war, so what this archaeologist says happened obviously didn't.

So you think it might have just been a sort-of made-up twist the game did?

Um, you eliminated Domination from that game's victory conditions, and you're crowing about not getting into any wars? Heh. Hardly seems like a great accomplishment then. Slip Domination back into the equation, and lets see what happens.

Heerlo said:

But that outfit was supposed to be my civ, right? I'm playing as Brazil, yet I've never been in a war, so what this archaeologist says happened obviously didn't.

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It didn't need to be a full-blown war. Did you _ever_ wipe out a barbarian encampment near there? (In this case, the encampment is being labeled a "city".) That would be the most likely explanation.

Smokeybear said:

Um, you eliminated Domination from that game's victory conditions, and you're crowing about not getting into any wars? Heh. Hardly seems like a great accomplishment then. Slip Domination back into the equation, and lets see what happens.

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Not so much crowing as simply just amazed that it happened at all. In all the history of the Civilization games going all the way back to the board games, this was the first time I completed a game without having gone to war. The fact that it's possible at all means that the game has finally evolved to where it does become a possibility.

CaptainPatch said:

It didn't need to be a full-blown war. Did you _ever_ wipe out a barbarian encampment near there? (In this case, the encampment is being labeled a "city".) That would be the most likely explanation.

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I can't remember if there was ever one there. There was one a little to the south of there, but I didn't destroy it.