Crimso said:
This is a terrible guide.
Well, you know, that's, like, your opinion, man.
There is no sense in only concentrate on spreading your relegion to your weaker neighbor. Spread it to as many cities as possible, especially to the stronger neighbor, since being on good terms with them actually matters. Again, converting to a weaker neighbor's relegion will only put you in the sights of the stronger.
Spreading religion everywhere is always good, but split between investing your resources in something other than missionaries, such as military, the strategy suggested is to focus on appeasement of a weak neighbor, thus directing your aggression in one direction only. Remember, the other AI's will "pile on" if they see you protracted in an expensive war, so make sure they like you enough to resist. If you plan on invading a neighbor it doesn't accomplish anything to become friends through mutual religion, or any other such diplomacy.
If you had enough troops to take out two thirds of their empire, your units should be promoted enough to take the rest with ease.
Sure, that goes without saying, but then how do you extort them with a peace treaty?
You're going to let them live and actually gift them techs, so you can have a "buffer" for your next invasion? What the hell does a "buffer" do?
No, the buffer is not for an invasion, but to prevent/predict an invasion coming your own way. This also helps to keep other Civs from having "close borders spark tensions." A civ left with 1-2 cities is only as significant as you will allow them to be, that's the payoff. With the proper genorosity they will indeed forget your, er, overzelous past.
And how exactly are you going to convince them to stop trading with your enemies? They're best friends after what you did to them.
The techs you wind up gifting them are usually obsolete, and only enough to give them enough military threat to establish enough defense to keep aggressive neighbors from finishing them off, e.g. Feudalism, Gunpowder, Rifling.
How would you write a recipe for apple pie?
Good analogy. I set out to write a guide that didn't tell you EXACTLY what to do in order to win. It is a STRATEGY GUIDE, not a cheat-sheet, or way of manipulating the programming to take advantage of the game mechanisms. That is what too many of these "guides" do, and that's the point at which a game loses its flexibility and appeal.
No, I don't have the formulas mapped out, I don't know how the game calculates and rounds-up commerce points per turn. I just like how natural and replayable it is. But your points are valid and apprechiated, feel free to contribute anytime.