Diplomacy...

[The Flame]

Hi everyone!

Right now I am playing Julius Ceasar in 18-civ world map, marathon speed, noble difficulty (CivIV Vanilla). This is an interesting game - my focus is on diplomacy this time, as I am hoping to win a diplomatic victory.

I have good relations with my European buddies right now (Louis, Frederick, Elizabeth (after converting to the world religion - Judaism), Alexander and Catherine). Africa incl. Saladin hate me. Mansa Musa is annoyed, Egypt is furious, and Saldin is also furious. Early in the game I invaded Egypt as I had no room for expansion (the down-side of starting in Europe). After taking 3 of their cities and sending them to the bottom of the points-chart (or whatever you call that chart with the Civs and their points), I controlled the Jewish holy city and had the most points (I use the points as a neat little reference to see how much I suck at any given time ).

Since Europe was Buddhist, I built tons of Jewish missionaries and sent them throughout Europe. Louis, Alexander and Frederick converted, but Isabella staid stubborn (Buddhist). Catherine and Elizabeth were already Jewish.

Since I am bent on world - conquest (in the most peaceful manner), I want to destroy Saladin. Sadly, I can't do that directly since I already have -4 on "you attacked our friend" for Frederick (Frederick and Saladin are apparently good buddies). I need him as a supporter for my future diplomatic victory, so I don't want to upset him anymore. I did invade Saldin once, but wasn't strong enough to capture more than 2 cities. I have already convinced alot of Civs to stop trading with him, have made tons of arrogant demands, and have done everything in my power to upset him. Yet, he won't attack. His military power is under mine, but still pretty close. The only thing that has a "+" for him is that we share a common religion.

Anyways, I have invaded Alexander, since no one really likes him that much and he has some nice land that I could use. It's not worth keeping him any longer.


After reading this, I have a few questions that I hope you'll be able to answer:

1. Is there any way to convert Isabella to my religion? If not, I'll just have to invade her, but that may cause some foreign difficulties (most of Asia is pleased that I have converted to Judaism, especially India. have to check to see how they stand with Isabella).

2. Why won't Saladin attack me? I can't get any other civs to attack him, since they're all too weak. Does it have anything to do witht he religion thing?

3. Any further suggestions on getting better relations with my neighbors? America has been discovered by Frederick, but I have not met them yet. I was only able to trade maps recently. Hopefully I can get some land from them (America, Aztecs, Incans) before too many people build relations with them.

Thanks for reading this!

[The Tyrant]

Isabella is a stubborn one. She won't convert unless she loses her holy city. If you do go to war with her, make that city a priority. Otherwise, you'll probably have to bribe someone else to attack her.

Saladin won't attack you precisely because you're too powerful. If he shares a border with one of your friends then you might consider gifting that friendly AI a bunch of troops (be sure they are positioned near Saladin's border when you gift them) and then ask him to invade Arabia. You'll have to gift a significant number to boost the AI's strength enough so he'll feel safe attacking. If Saladin is more technologically adavanced than your friendly AI, you might need to gift some techs as well. Be aware that gifting that many troops will weaken you and then Saladin just might attack you. Be prepared.

[The Flame]

Thanks alot!

I guess I'll either leave Isabella alone, or invade her (but simultaneously destroy her since she only has one city and is kind of technologically-behind).

As for gifting the units, that could be a risk. Saladin currently is neighbors with me and Cyrus. I didn't start off with a good relation with Cyrus since we had different religions, although things have gotten better. He is more powerful than Saladin, but they are good friends, so I don't think that would work too well. Thanks anyways though, I might be able to find a similar aolution (Asoka is fairly close to Saladin I think).

[Neal]

Unfortunately, Tyrant, unless something really weird is going on, Isabella's holy city is her city. You think Rome is cramped? If you build in the starting location (which the AI invariably does), Spain has room for a capitol before being hemmed in by French culture. Given that, Spain's really not worth having on the map if her religion isn't the world religion. Wipe her out.

edit: Heh. Beaten to it.

[The Flame]

Originally Posted by Neal

Unfortunately, Tyrant, unless something really weird is going on, Isabella's holy city is her city. You think Rome is cramped? If you build in the starting location (which the AI invariably does), Spain has room for a capitol before being hemmed in by French culture. Given that, Spain's really not worth having on the map if her religion isn't the world religion. Wipe her out.

edit: Heh. Beaten to it.

I guess that solves that problem

edit: Her religion used to be the major European religion, so would that have any effect on diplomacy?

[The Tyrant]

Originally Posted by The Flame

edit: Her religion used to be the major European religion, so would that have any effect on diplomacy?

Only current relations/religions will affect diplomacy. From your description of the game so far it sounds like it has been some time since the others shared her religion, so they probably aren't all that fond of her now.

I didn't know that about Madrid being her only city. I don't think I've played that map before. Interesting.

[The Flame]

Well, it's the 18-civ map, and she doesn't really have any room to expand anywhere (unless she could travel by sea, which she can't). It's a fun map though.

ps - ya, it's been a little while since Europe got converted.