Xerol
Emperor
Open Vanilla, 1.29f
(Wait, this isn't a GOTM write-up. Let's start over again.)
I proposed the idea of coming up with a domination victory without ever going to war, although an angry AI might declare on you(and as such you were allowed to defend yourself but not to initiate any attacks). Here's the rules I'm going to follow:
-You may build anything.
-You may NOT declare war.
-You may "border-cram" (see below).
-Combat settlers are DISALLOWED. However, you can, as mentioned, "cram" cities into territory that's been warred on by other civs.
-If at war:
--You may NOT initiate any attacks.
--You may NOT plant a settler in enemy territory.
--You may NOT advance any units into enemy territory for the purpose of drawing attacks.
--You MAY attract units to a city for the purpose of creating defensive leaders.
--You MAY sign alliances to get other civs into war.
Attempt #1 - Too easy.
Ok, a more experienced player probably could've blown this date out of the water. I should have expanded more in the beginning, and I might've even been able to accomplish this in the ancient age had I really put some effort into it. But, this was just a first test game. The conditions:
-Tiny, Pangaea
-Chieftain
-Babylon, 3 random opponents
-Sedentary barbs
Can't get much easier than that. It wasn't a very exciting game, most of the game was building settlers, workers, and culture buildings, and then defensive units when I ran out of things to build. I got all wonders but two, Sun Tzu's and the Lighthouse, but neither hurt me in the end. My random opponents ended up being Zululand, England, and Persia. Persia ended up being more of a problem because of cheap libraries. However, I ended up flipping all but 4 each of england's and the zulu's cities, and had those down to size 1 borders(even the capitals). The date was 1778 AD when I finally got domination, but as I said I could've had that much much sooner if I had built more settlers. As a test game, I didn't take many intermediate saves or any screenshots.
I kept all three civs in RoPs and later on MPPs and there were no wars whatsoever throughout the whole game.
Anyway, now that we know it's possible, time for the next attempt. I'll be starting this today and playing throughout the week. Conditions are going to be a bit less convenient:
-Warlord difficulty
-Small, Continents
-Some civ that's not Babylon - probably a scientific one. Persia's looking good with industrious workers.
-Random barbs
Also, a challenge to more experienced players: Get the best date possible with the conditions set forth in my first game - Babylon, Tiny Pangaea, Sedentary Barbs with random opponents. I bet with a good start you might be able to beat 500 BC. (Actually, if you're going to try for one THAT early, maybe an ind/exp civ would work better.) Note I'm playing with vanilla 1.29f.
EDIT1: Ok, the war rules are mostly there for playing at a higher difficulty level where you can't out-expand the AI so much. You can't flip capitals, but you can flip CAPTURED capitals. I think in a Regent/Monarch attempt you're going to need to make the AI declare on you, stack a city with elite defenders(barb-trained?) and use leaders to hop the palace around a lot, since that's a big deal in flip calculations.
One more reflection: A much looser city spacing is really to your advantage here.
(Wait, this isn't a GOTM write-up. Let's start over again.)
I proposed the idea of coming up with a domination victory without ever going to war, although an angry AI might declare on you(and as such you were allowed to defend yourself but not to initiate any attacks). Here's the rules I'm going to follow:
-You may build anything.
-You may NOT declare war.
-You may "border-cram" (see below).
-Combat settlers are DISALLOWED. However, you can, as mentioned, "cram" cities into territory that's been warred on by other civs.
-If at war:
--You may NOT initiate any attacks.
--You may NOT plant a settler in enemy territory.
--You may NOT advance any units into enemy territory for the purpose of drawing attacks.
--You MAY attract units to a city for the purpose of creating defensive leaders.
--You MAY sign alliances to get other civs into war.
Attempt #1 - Too easy.
Ok, a more experienced player probably could've blown this date out of the water. I should have expanded more in the beginning, and I might've even been able to accomplish this in the ancient age had I really put some effort into it. But, this was just a first test game. The conditions:
-Tiny, Pangaea
-Chieftain
-Babylon, 3 random opponents
-Sedentary barbs
Can't get much easier than that. It wasn't a very exciting game, most of the game was building settlers, workers, and culture buildings, and then defensive units when I ran out of things to build. I got all wonders but two, Sun Tzu's and the Lighthouse, but neither hurt me in the end. My random opponents ended up being Zululand, England, and Persia. Persia ended up being more of a problem because of cheap libraries. However, I ended up flipping all but 4 each of england's and the zulu's cities, and had those down to size 1 borders(even the capitals). The date was 1778 AD when I finally got domination, but as I said I could've had that much much sooner if I had built more settlers. As a test game, I didn't take many intermediate saves or any screenshots.
I kept all three civs in RoPs and later on MPPs and there were no wars whatsoever throughout the whole game.
Anyway, now that we know it's possible, time for the next attempt. I'll be starting this today and playing throughout the week. Conditions are going to be a bit less convenient:
-Warlord difficulty
-Small, Continents
-Some civ that's not Babylon - probably a scientific one. Persia's looking good with industrious workers.
-Random barbs
Also, a challenge to more experienced players: Get the best date possible with the conditions set forth in my first game - Babylon, Tiny Pangaea, Sedentary Barbs with random opponents. I bet with a good start you might be able to beat 500 BC. (Actually, if you're going to try for one THAT early, maybe an ind/exp civ would work better.) Note I'm playing with vanilla 1.29f.
EDIT1: Ok, the war rules are mostly there for playing at a higher difficulty level where you can't out-expand the AI so much. You can't flip capitals, but you can flip CAPTURED capitals. I think in a Regent/Monarch attempt you're going to need to make the AI declare on you, stack a city with elite defenders(barb-trained?) and use leaders to hop the palace around a lot, since that's a big deal in flip calculations.
One more reflection: A much looser city spacing is really to your advantage here.