I wan't to play a peaceful game without ever attacking any of the ai. Do I have to build a large costly army that just sits in my cities to scare away agressive neighbors or is there some other kind of strategy possible to play a peaceful game without having to support a huge army?
How to keep the peace?
- Thread starter robincox
- Start date
Gen.Washington
Anti-communist
Build nukes first then ban nukes, but for the early game I think other nations will almost always attack you.
Socratatus
Emperor
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`If you seek peace, prepare for war!` Or something like that, is a saying made in ancient times, it`s true in this game.
Basically, yes. Build a big army that rivals any other Civ and they'll stay away from attacking you. If you don`t, someone will attack you. Works for me.
LMT
Warlord
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That's always my plan. You must prepare as if you will be attacked.
Remember, you don't need to win wars when playing peacefully. You just need to survive them relatively intact.
phillipwyllie
Wannabe Deity
I find the quicker you become the tech leader the quicker folks want to be your friend. Failing that keep units on or near your borders looking for any potential invasions. When you see 1 try to bribe that civ to DOW someone else. In saying that some civs will DOW you regardless
Aheadatime
Prince
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You can get DoWed on even with the highest military score in the game. There's no way to never get DoWed on besides playing on a very easy setting. Instead, focus on defensive strategies in case you're attacked.
-If you're going tradition, have a contemporary unit stationed in all of your cities.
-Place your cities behind hills/rivers and/or bordering mountains so that they are hard to attack into.
-Make sure you have roads up, and "pre-build" roads on tiles that will be valuable movement tiles in case of a sudden war (by this I mean use a worker and put 2 turns into a road[Standard Speed] then cancel that worker's assignment so that you can immediately build a road on that tile whenever you want).
-Make friendships with neighbors that you can trust and who aren't an enemy of the world. If they ask for gold or something occasionally, give it to cement your friendship.
-Be sure you're very competitive in science and production. Out-smarting the AI is very easy in war so long as you're up-to-date with your units and you can get them out fast enough if a war breaks out.
You don't need a huge army eating your GPT to ensure your safety. You just need a very strategical and tactical state of mind.
-If you're going tradition, have a contemporary unit stationed in all of your cities.
-Place your cities behind hills/rivers and/or bordering mountains so that they are hard to attack into.
-Make sure you have roads up, and "pre-build" roads on tiles that will be valuable movement tiles in case of a sudden war (by this I mean use a worker and put 2 turns into a road[Standard Speed] then cancel that worker's assignment so that you can immediately build a road on that tile whenever you want).
-Make friendships with neighbors that you can trust and who aren't an enemy of the world. If they ask for gold or something occasionally, give it to cement your friendship.
-Be sure you're very competitive in science and production. Out-smarting the AI is very easy in war so long as you're up-to-date with your units and you can get them out fast enough if a war breaks out.
You don't need a huge army eating your GPT to ensure your safety. You just need a very strategical and tactical state of mind.
LMT
Warlord
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Very true. And if you adopt the Freedom ideology, the volunteer army tenet is terrific for staying safe at a reasonable cost. Especially if you play tall.
Illianor123
Warlord
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- Aug 26, 2014
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Pay them to dow each other. Even when I play peaceful, I prepare for war, not some huge costly army, but a small efficeny army, a couple of melee units to block the enemy, and a lot of ranged units to kill the enemy with.
All units, military and civilian, have the same maintenance cost (which rises as the game progresses). That tenet does provide that 6 units are maintenance free, but that benefit is not slaved to the 6 foreign legion units you receive ( I.e., you get that benefit even if the foreign legion units are lost in battle).
vesp3r1987
Warlord
My experience:
1. Keep a descent army - track how other leaders turn to you i.e. Everyone in the world knows your army to be the most fearsome" (or something like that)
2. Keep your gold income - strong economy = strong civ. Others will hesitate to attack you if for instance you have 10000 gold and they got 200
3. Tech power! - If you know your play you will often find yourself (late game) atleast 1 era above the weakest civ.
4. Keep your borders closed! - Even appearing friendly all civ want intel... keeping your borders closed to them will prevent proper scouting if you lack army. Also try preventing Embassy accepting unless that civ already know where is your capitol.
5. "I have become death - destroyer of worlds" - like suggested above you will be forced to eventually build nukes and station them in border cities to frighten neighbors. I suggest not building them but spending money on them and quickly ban them in WC so only you have access to that power.
6. Friend to all - try to keep alliance with all possible CS. Patronage policy tree will help you keep those CS as your allies and voters in the WC
Also try to keep spy in your capitol so others have hard time stealing techs
1. Keep a descent army - track how other leaders turn to you i.e. Everyone in the world knows your army to be the most fearsome" (or something like that)
2. Keep your gold income - strong economy = strong civ. Others will hesitate to attack you if for instance you have 10000 gold and they got 200
3. Tech power! - If you know your play you will often find yourself (late game) atleast 1 era above the weakest civ.
4. Keep your borders closed! - Even appearing friendly all civ want intel... keeping your borders closed to them will prevent proper scouting if you lack army. Also try preventing Embassy accepting unless that civ already know where is your capitol.
5. "I have become death - destroyer of worlds" - like suggested above you will be forced to eventually build nukes and station them in border cities to frighten neighbors. I suggest not building them but spending money on them and quickly ban them in WC so only you have access to that power.
6. Friend to all - try to keep alliance with all possible CS. Patronage policy tree will help you keep those CS as your allies and voters in the WC
Also try to keep spy in your capitol so others have hard time stealing techs
phillipwyllie
Wannabe Deity
Forgot to add:
Gift 1 gpt initially, rising to 5gpt in the later eras to obtain the "we traded recently" diplo modifier. This modifier doesn't stack and the intensity of it is the difference between what the AI would pay for something and the price you sold it for. Gifts of 1 gpt seems to weigh very heavy on the AI's mind and is probably an exploit. Have no gold gift a luxury instead.
Gift 1 gpt initially, rising to 5gpt in the later eras to obtain the "we traded recently" diplo modifier. This modifier doesn't stack and the intensity of it is the difference between what the AI would pay for something and the price you sold it for. Gifts of 1 gpt seems to weigh very heavy on the AI's mind and is probably an exploit. Have no gold gift a luxury instead.
Socratatus
Emperor
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Not sure about that one. I find keeping my borders closed sends my neighbours into declaring war quicker than ever! Or is that Civ 4?
stormtrooper412
Peacemongering Turtlesaur
I pretty much always keep my borders closed. Just seeing a friendly tank just passing through makes me all kinds of uncomfortable
vesp3r1987
Warlord
im on BNW and almost never opened my borders to anyone... however i have to sacrifice sometimes the luxury i have in unfair trades just to keep them pleased
Opened my borders once for ally to get his troops to his enemy and he suddenly became guarded after he saw my army (according to the score i had 4x his military power)
Not attacking the AI is, of course, within your control. But a wholly peaceful game might not be an option. I have a working (but unsubstantiated) hypothesis that the game is programmed with a strong bias to involve the player in at least one mid to late game war.
The rule-of-thumb on this board seems to be 1½ units per city to avoid a DOW. Does that count as a large costly army in your mind? But that won’t be enough if there really is a drag-the-player-into-war game mechanic.
Being in the top half militarily will let you have a peaceful game, but you are explicitly trying to go peaceful without having to support a huge army.
Having just one nuke will ensure civil behavior from the AI. Are you able to avoid wars long enough to try this?
You can try keeping up a trades and trade routes -- one for every civ you can, but especially your neighbors.
You can try bribing your neighbors to stay in wars with others. You can try bribing neighbors of your neighbors to war on your neighbors.
My working theory is that game-long-peace (for the player) + trades + bribes is a razor thin balance. Under those conditions, I think one or more AI is chopping at the bit to DOW the player.
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